Hattiesburg City Council members are looking into measures to make children safer during school hours, as the council recently approved an item that would allow city officials to possibly implement cameras to deter speeding in certain school zone areas in the Hattiesburg Public School District.
That matter was approved at the March 19 council meeting, where members voted to approve an agreement with Intellisafe, a collision avoidance system, to provide a pilot program with cameras at the school zones along Hardy Street near Woodley Elementary School and near Grace Christian Elementary School on West 7th Street.
“It’ll give us the opportunity, really, for the last month or month and a half of this school year, to see how these cameras work and give our officers the opportunity to test using them,” council president Jeffrey George said. “Also, we can go through the process of working with people through the program, if they do get ticketed (for speeding) and things like that.”
So far, officers from the Hattiesburg Police Department have begun to receive training regarding the cameras. The pilot program is expected to launch within the next few weeks.
“The goal is to get these out and see how they work throughout the remainder of this school year,” George said. “Hattiesburg public schools go until about the end of May, so I think you’ll see them coming out at some point in April.”
The speeding cameras were initially discussed at recently town hall meetings regarding new technology for first responders, where attendees were invited to give their opinions on matters such as drone-supported assist for the city’s police and fire departments, along with camera-assisted support for the police department. George said during those meetings, the school zone cameras received perhaps the most support of any of the discussed measures.
“This was one of the things that people liked the most, and so I’m excited personally to see this move forward and see how it can help curb speeding in school zones,” George said. “And it’s really about changing behavior – as a community, we have to do a better job in terms of speeding and following speed limits, particularly when it comes to our school zones.
“We want to make sure that children are safe as they’re walking to and from school. I think that was the main motivation, was to protect children, but also to help change behavior.”
Taxpayers would incur no cost to implement the program.
“The way it works is that Intellisafe will collect a portion of the fines that we receive,” George said. “So when a ticket goes out to someone who was caught speeding, a portion of that ticket fine will go towards the City of Hattiesburg, and a portion will go toward Intellisafe, and then a portion will go to the State of Mississippi, who receives an amount of any ticket that anyone writes.”
George said based on what he has heard from residents and school officials, the camera measure will be supported throughout the community.
“They are in support of these measures,” he said. “I attended three out of the five town halls, and this was the popular item that a lot of people were in favor of.
“I think everybody can agree on doing everything we can to improve safety within school zones.”
