The cameras ticketed drivers speeding at least 11 miles per hour over the limit in designated school zones across the city. Funds from the tickets will support the city’s Vision Zero program, its traffic safety initiative.
A pair of cameras outside River City Middle School accounted for over a third of all citations, issuing 37,063 tickets. The cameras sit sentinel on Hull Street Road, a major route into the city, which urban planners have criticized as being designed like a highway. The road sees a high number of pedestrian deaths, and its entire length before entering Chesterfield County is designated by the city as high-injury.
The cameras are online while children arrive or leave from school. They are not active outside of those windows, nor can footage from the cameras be used for separate criminal investigations, Richmond Police Chief Rick Edwards said at a crime briefing last week.
The city will hope to collect around double that amount as it closes out the year. According to a police department spokesperson, about $3 million in citations went unpaid. Drivers have 90 days to pay their fines, which can be contested, said James Mercante, director of communications for the Richmond Police Department.
The cameras produced just over 100,000 violations, police said. Fines begin at $50 and go up to $100 for repeat offenses.
Last week, Edwards also announced that one camera would be moved from Westover Hills Elementary to Mary Munford Elementary, which the city identified as a higher priority for traffic safety. Mercante said that will bring a second pair of cameras to Mary Munford, which will cover the school’s back entrance on Cary Street Road. That relocation decision was the result of a traffic study, Mercante said.
“They want to place the cameras in a location that would have a better implication for safety,” Mercante said.
The city is separately moving ahead of its timeline to install red-light safety cameras at other intersections across the city. Four such cameras came online in January, and another six will be added by the end of the year, the city said.
That acceleration comes on the heels of a streak of pedestrian deaths at the turn of the year. In total, 13 pedestrians were killed in traffic-related deaths in 2025, a spike that ran counter to years of decreases in pedestrian deaths.
"These losses are heartbreaking, and the recent frequency is, frankly, terrifying," Mayor Danny Avula said. "We cannot treat traffic deaths as normal, and we cannot accept that losing your life while walking, crossing a street or heading to a bus stop is just part of living in a city. In a Thriving Richmond, everyone deserves to get where they're going safely."
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