Over the next two weeks, approximately 28 new speed cameras will be installed throughout Chicago, and they will begin issuing tickets to drivers who exceed the legal speed limit.
Of the 28 new speed cameras recently installed, the Chicago Crusader identified seven positioned in Black neighborhoods on Chicago’s South Side.
The Chicago Department of Transportation said the new locations were chosen “using a data-driven process that uses crash data and stakeholder feedback to identify areas experiencing traffic safety concerns.”
But studies have shown that speed-limit cameras disproportionately impact Black and minority drivers who struggle to pay for tickets, which get bigger with late fees.
The new cameras are part of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s plans to add 50 new speed cameras to city streets this year in order to plug an $11.4 million deficit, which occurred after he was forced to restore 162 Chicago police positions in his 2026 budget.
Chicago will have a total of 212 speed cameras once the city installs the rest of the 22 devices.
During his campaign for mayor, Johnson promised to eliminate speed cameras by phasing them out. At a mayoral debate in 2023 hosted by CBS Chicago, Johnson said, “I’m for phasing them out if the Constitution allows us to. And if we can’t, wherever a speed ticket has been accumulated, or acquired, that ZIP code should get the revenue.”
The installation of new speed cameras renewed concerns that the devices are used to generate revenue instead of protecting public safety near schools and parks.
On Sunday, June 1, speed cameras will start issuing tickets to speeding drivers at South Deering’s Trumbull Park, 2310 E. 103rd St.; Chatham’s Mahalia Jackson High School, 8740 S. Vincennes St.; and Chicago Lawn’s Senka Park, 3510 W. 55th St.
On June 15, speed cameras will start issuing tickets to speeding drivers at Greater Grand Crossing’s Hirsch Metropolitan High School, 7733 S. Cottage Grove Ave.; Park Manor’s Meyering (William) Park, 442 E. 71st St.; and Chatham’s Cole Park, 8553 S. Martin Luther King Dr. A new speed camera near Chatham’s Perspectives High School, 49 W. 85th St., will begin ticketing drivers June 30.
Drivers traveling between 6 and 10 miles per hour over the speed limit will be fined $35. The fine increases to $100 if drivers go 11 miles per hour over the speed limit.
Cameras near schools will enforce the speed limits between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., Monday through Friday, on school days. The speed limit in school zones is 20 miles per hour.
Speed enforcement hours near parks occur daily, from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m.
A study by the University of Illinois Chicago found that Chicago’s speed camera tickets and late fees disproportionately burden Black and Latino communities. The study found residents in predominately Black neighborhoods paid speeding fees 10 times higher in the city over four years, compared to white and Latino neighborhoods.
The study also found a 15 percent reduction in fatal and injury crashes around speed cameras, and some cameras actually saw an increase in crashes around them.
A 2022 ProPublica analysis of millions of tickets found that residents in predominately Black and Latino ZIP codes received tickets at around twice the rate of those in white areas between 2015 and 2019.
According to the Illinois Policy Institute, Chicago’s speed cameras generated $102 million in revenue for the city in 2023.
More than half of the revenue, $55.3 million, was from tickets paid late with extra fees that more than doubled the fines.
Of Chicago’s speed cameras, 17 issued over $1 million in fines; of those, five issued over $2 million in tickets. Three of the $2 million cameras were on the South Side, issuing over 138,000 tickets combined.
According to a 2023 ABC7 Chicago investigation, the speed camera at 536 E. Morgan Drive in Washington Park issued 151,721 tickets over two years, generating $6,374,881 in fines for the city. At the time, it produced the highest revenue of the city’s 162 speed cameras in Chicago.
A breakdown of speeding tickets from the Washington Park speed camera also revealed the device generated the highest number of tickets and revenue from drivers going between 6 to 10 miles per hour, a $35 fine. According to the ABC7 Chicago investigation, the Washington Park speed camera had given 135,131 tickets, generating a total of $4,720,031. Approximately 16,590 tickets, totaling nearly $1.7 million, were issued to drivers exceeding the speed limit by 11 mph, resulting in a $100 fine.
In 2022, the Washington Park speed camera placed first as the most profitable, after a similar ABC7 Chicago investigation.
According to the Illinois Policy Institute, since speed cameras started operating in 2014, Chicago has issued $879 million in fines through 9,132,409 tickets. When Mayor Lori Lightfoot lowered the ticketing threshold in 2021 to just 6 mph above the speed limit, the ticketing rate doubled, with 5,349,626 of all speed camera tickets issued in the past three years.