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“Chicago added 50 new speed cameras last year, and the
numbers now show us that drivers are getting hit with a ticket
every 48 seconds,” Illinois Policy Institute Public Engagement
Manager Dylan Sharkey told The Center Square.
Sharkey said Mayor Brandon Johnson called speed camera tickets a
“cash grab” before he was elected in 2023.
“I agreed with him back then, but his tone is different now that
his budgets are relying on that money,” Sharkey said.
Johnson’s office has projected deficits of $85.1 million this
year and $882.4 million for 2027.
Sharkey said it’s a fight between money and safety.
“If the city's getting more money from these cameras, that would
mean it's really less safe, because more people are speeding at
any rate. So when they say it's for safety and money, those two
things are competing against each other,” Sharkey said.
Sharkey said 80% of the speed camera tickets are going to people
driving six to 10 miles per hour over the speed limit.
“There's been research showing that these cameras don't make
people slow down, they just make people slow down around the
cameras, and then they speed right back up once they leave the
intersection,” Sharkey said.
Chicago Alderman Anthony Beale said last year that Johnson’s
decision to add 50 new cameras was a revenue grab.
“Chicago’s speed cameras have increasingly become about making
the city money and not making the city safer,” Beale said.
The IPI analysis said the city’s speed cameras have generated
more than $630 million since 2016 and sent more than 4.2 million
tickets to motorists.
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