SUFFOLK, Va. - If you live in or travel through Suffolk, you may notice speeding cameras in work zones and school zones.
The city says they want drivers to slow down in these areas.
Holland Road is one of the work zones where speed cameras have been added to keep construction workers safe.
"In an active work zone, you have people doing work on the side of the road when traffic is going by. It’s a dangerous situation," Major Cassandra Garvin with Suffolk Police
In addition to Holland Road, a speeding camera has also been added to a school zone near the College and Career Academy at Pruden on Pruden Boulevard, where the speed limit is 45 miles per hour.
"It makes you more alert of what’s going on and causes you to slow down," said Lizzie Jones, a Suffolk resident said.
Jones says the cameras are needed.
"A lot of times when you come through here at 35 mph and the next thing you know, you’re up to 40 miles per hour," Jones said. "I do drive for the city of Suffolk Public School and we got a piece of paper stating if we get a citation that we would pay for it."
The speeding cameras are in a few school zones and construction zones.
"A lot of our crashes are related to speed," Major Garvin said.
Warning letters were recently given to drivers who were clocked going above the speed limit between May 14 and June 15. Some residents have already received a letter in the mail.
"A little under 1,500 warnings so far," Garvin said.
But that warning period is over.
Drivers will now have to pay a fine of $100.
"If you have gone through those work zones at a higher rate of speed, you may end up with a ticket in your mailbox very shortly," Garvin said.
Some drivers don’t like the idea of speeding cameras.
"It doesn’t give officers a chance to pull someone over that’s really speeding. All it is is a money grab," another Suffolk resident told News 3's Leondra Head.
"I drive the speed limit anyway. Speeding cameras are just a way they can have fewer cops to get more money," another resident said.
Suffolk police say that’s not the case.
"In a perfect world, we can have an officer staged at every location across the city but that’s just not reality," Garvin said. "Technology like this does allow us a different tool to keep citizens safe."
Suffolk police say more speeding cameras will be added in school zones to keep pedestrians safe.
"Those will eventually be installed in up to 20 of our school zones," Garvin said. "Those should be ready to go this fall."
