{"id":341291,"date":"2026-07-15T20:03:35","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T20:03:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/341291\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T20:03:35","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T20:03:35","slug":"hillsborough-advances-school-zone-speed-camera-expansion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/341291\/","title":{"rendered":"Hillsborough advances school zone speed camera expansion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hillsborough County Commissioners voted unanimously to begin drafting an ordinance that would expand the county\u2019s school zone speed camera program.<\/p>\n

Chair Ken Hagan<\/a> presented the proposal during a Hillsborough County Commission meeting, asking the County Attorney\u2019s Office to work with county staff, the Sheriff\u2019s Office and other stakeholders on an amendment to Hillsborough\u2019s existing school zone speed enforcement ordinance.<\/p>\n

The action, requested by the Hillsborough County Sheriff\u2019s Office, does not immediately authorize new cameras. The draft ordinance would still require a public hearing and a formal board vote before final approval.<\/p>\n

Hagan credited former Commissioner Michael Owen<\/a> with championing the original program, which the board unanimously established in 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday is the first of three separate meetings, if we ultimately approve the item,\u201d Hagan said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Hillsborough County Sheriff\u2019s Office Chief Deputy Frank Losat<\/a> told Commissioners the agency has continued monitoring the existing program alongside RedSpeed, the private vendor helping administer it.<\/p>\n

Commissioner Joshua Wostal<\/a> seconded Hagan\u2019s motion and supported moving forward, while also raising concerns about lighting and visibility around some existing enforcement areas, including locations near Citrus Park Drive.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are some very confusing spots right there, but I\u2019m truly supportive of the initiative,\u201d Wostal said. \u201cI really hope that people slow down through the school zones.\u201d<\/p>\n

The draft ordinance will return to Commissioners before the board schedules a public hearing and considers whether to approve the expansion.<\/p>\n

The proposal comes as Tampa considers its own expansion<\/a> of school zone speed cameras through a contract piggybacking on Hillsborough County\u2019s agreement with RedSpeed<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Unlike Hillsborough County\u2019s unanimous initial action, Tampa\u2019s proposal has drawn concerns from Council members over privacy, surveillance, vendor oversight and how the city would spend revenue.<\/p>\n

Tampa currently operates cameras at 12 schools. An ordinance advancing through the Tampa City Council would increase that number to 18, with the proposed locations identified through a speed study that recorded between 200 and 3,000 potential violations per day.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Only six schools from the city\u2019s existing list would remain, meaning cameras would be introduced at 12 new schools overall.<\/p>\n

Council members have asked staff to consider restricting the money to school-safety improvements, while also seeking assurances that RedSpeed would not share city data with Flock Safety.<\/p>\n

Tampa\u2019s ordinance is scheduled for a final public hearing and vote<\/a> Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hillsborough County Commissioners voted unanimously to begin drafting an ordinance that would expand the county\u2019s school zone speed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165771,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[11284,77526,140192,276,33192,18311,62633,66713,33194,5320,84696,135,610,137,136],"class_list":["post-341291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-city-of-tampa","tag-flock-safety","tag-frank-losat","tag-hillsborough-county","tag-hillsborough-county-commission","tag-hillsborough-county-sheriffs-office","tag-joshua-wostal","tag-ken-hagan","tag-michael-owen","tag-redspeed","tag-school-zone-speed-cameras","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-city-council","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}