North Carolina’s SB 391: School Zone Speed Enforcement at Zero Cost

Speeding near schools is one of the most persistent and preventable safety risks agencies face. A pedestrian struck by a vehicle traveling 40 miles per hour is roughly ten times more likely to die than one struck at 20 miles per hour, and traffic crashes remain a leading cause of death for school-age children nationwide. North Carolina just gave agencies a new tool to change that math, and a partnership between RedSpeed and PlateRanger™ means agencies can deploy it without upfront equipment or installation costs.

North Carolina's Senate Bill 391 was signed into law on July 1, 2025, with its school-zone automated-enforcement provisions taking effect October 1, 2025. The law does not establish a separate statewide automated-enforcement threshold above the posted school-zone speed limit. Citations carry a $250 civil penalty with no effect on driving records or insurance rates, and enforcement is limited to the posted school-zone enforcement periods on days when school is in session.

RedSpeed's program is entirely violator-funded. There are no equipment fees, installation fees, or citation minimums charged to the municipality. RedSpeed recovers its costs from a share of citation revenue, with remaining proceeds supporting local public schools. Local cost-sharing and reimbursement arrangements can be addressed through agreements among the participating local government, school board, and law enforcement agency.

The main investment on the law enforcement agency side is staff time reviewing violations, which RedSpeed estimates at roughly three violations per minute once officers are trained.

Miami-Dade: One of the Largest School Zone Programs in the Country

The Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office runs one of the largest school zone speed enforcement programs in the country, with more than 200 schools under contract. Sergeant Eddie Perez, who built the program from the ground up starting in January 2024, shared results directly from the agency's first two school years. The program launched in November 2024 with 17 camera systems and grew to 70 by the end of that school year. The following school year, coverage expanded to 125 camera systems, starting at the beginning of the school year rather than mid-year.

 

The clearest comparison comes from the program's original seven pilot schools. In January 2025, those schools logged 22,139 violations in a single month. By May 2026, the same schools recorded 3,524 violations in a month, a reduction of 84.1 percent using an apples-to-apples comparison. 

The archive has also supported serious investigations. In one case, a vehicle fled toward a school zone after a shooting that left a victim with critical injuries. Because the cameras track lanes independently and record continuously, investigators were able to narrow down footage by time frame, identify the suspect vehicle, and support a search warrant. A recovered firearm matched through NIBIN helped lead to an arrest and an eventual plea agreement.

Every RedSpeed speed camera installed under this partnership comes bundled with one PlateRanger ALPR (Automated License Plate Reader) at no additional cost. An agency covering 10 schools with 20 speed cameras receives 20 ALPRs as part of the same deployment, and the agency chooses where each ALPR is placed, whether directly at the school zone or in another high-priority location.

PlateRanger ALPR reads more than plates. It captures vehicle state, make, body style, color, and direction of travel, and pairs each read with a high-resolution image, a location map, and a video clip. Rather than relying on a single still image, the system captures and compares multiple frames as a vehicle passes through the camera's field of view, helping maintain accuracy in the presence of glare, weather, low light, sharp angles, and partially obstructed plates.

On the back end, data moves over a private cellular or VPN connection rather than the public internet, and is encrypted in transit and at rest. Access is controlled through role-based permissions and multi-factor authentication. Agencies retain full ownership and control over their own information, which matters as data governance becomes a bigger part of public conversations around this technology.

Two steps stand between the law and an active program. First, a local ordinance authorizing automated enforcement must pass through the city council or county commission, along with any applicable cost-sharing agreements among the city, county, school board, and law enforcement. Second, before citations can go live, the electronic speed-measuring system must be approved and calibrated and tested according to standards established by the North Carolina Criminal Justice Education and Training Standards Commission and the Secretary of Public Safety. Agencies do not need to wait for final equipment approval to start planning. No-cost, no-obligation speed studies are now available to identify which school zones pose the greatest risk.

Once a local ordinance is in place, RedSpeed typically completes permitting, construction, and installation within two to three months, and staff training takes about a day. Agencies can begin the local process before state equipment approval is complete. Adopting an ordinance, reviewing contract terms, and requesting a no-cost speed study are all steps agencies can take to position a program to move quickly once the necessary approvals are in place.