NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill joined local politicians and school officials earlier this month to demand that state legislators push through a bill to add hundreds of additional surveillance cameras on streets in school zones, The New York Post reports.
O’Neill said the cameras are needed to help prevent kids from being hit by cars as they walk to and from school. Only 140 speed cameras are currently installed in the five boroughs. The bill, which has bipartisan support, would provide support for hundreds more to be installed throughout 150 school zones.
“This pending bill will allow us to keep the cameras we currently have while doubling the number of school zones we can cover with new ones,” he says.
Since the cameras were installed in 2014, officials say the number of drivers caught on camera while speeding has dropped more than 60% across the city, and the number of fatal crashes near schools has dropped 25%.
Opponents of the bill argue that the cameras are a speed trap for unsuspecting drivers and kick in only when motorists are going 11 mph or more over the speed limit, according to The New York Post.