Receiving a ticket for a traffic violation captured by a speed camera is always frustrating, but finding out they’ve been overcharged for that ticket may be downright infuriating for some. A new report from New Orleans Inspector General Ed Michel shows that there have actually been overpayments from the traffic camera program, an issue he believes is a big problem for several reasons. One of the most glaring issues according to Michel is the potential erosion of public trust. “The city has operated a traffic camera program since 2007. The stated purpose is to reduce traffic violations while improving road safety,” Michel explains. However, there seem to be plenty of errors in the system not currently being accounted for and that’s an issue Michel says he takes very seriously.
According to Michel, the Traffic Enforcement Safety Program issued over 300,000 citations in 2024 alone. The Inspector General’s office discovered roughly $730,000 worth of citations that year that should not have been issued. That led them to reexamine the validity of citations the following year, where they discovered another massive amount of erroneous tickets being issued. That led to an additional $770,000 worth of erroneous tickets mailed to citizens.
Michel announced that the city has assigned someone to look into information on school calendars so speed cameras will be turned off accordingly and dare not wrongly issued to those driving in school zones after or before school hours as well as during holidays when classes are not in session.
While the NOPD has implemented some quality controls and updated its policies for the review of traffic camera citations, the time spent for reviewing those citations remained concerningly fast according to Michel. “About 92% of the citations for violations committed in 2024 were reviewed in about 30 seconds and 68% were reviewed in 10 seconds. About 23% of the citations issued were reviewed in 3 seconds,” the Inspector General went on to emphasize. He notes that lack of actual review time as one of the major flaws in the system that needs to be addressed immediately.
The only way for citizens of New Orleans to know for sure if they’ve been fined erroneously and to contest that ticket is to actually call the number on the back of the ticket you receive. That may deter some who are dealing with a potential citation issue, but it could add up to big bucks for those who are willing to take the time to check.