Last month, a Broward County traffic judge ordered every pending school-zone speed-camera case in his courtroom dismissed, a move defense attorneys say strikes at the heart of Florida’s new automated enforcement push. The order, which took effect April 24, found that the device used to calculate drivers’ speeds “is not an approved enforcement tool,” leaving city officials and drivers across South Florida trying to square the ruling with an ongoing wave of camera installations.
The ruling technically reaches only Broward County cases, but the legal strategy behind it is already showing up elsewhere, according to CBS12. “This applies to Broward County only at this time, however, other judges could also agree,” attorney Ted Hollander of The Ticket Clinic told the station, adding that similar motions are being argued in courtrooms around the state.
In Central Florida, those challenges have already paid off. In Osceola County, prosecutors paused camera enforcement and judges dismissed a batch of camera-issued tickets after questions surfaced about whether the devices were actually inside the legally defined school-zone boundaries, as reported by WFTV. Channel 9’s reporting notes that the sheriff’s office suspended the program while it reviews camera placement and device approvals, and that dozens of notices were tossed at a recent hearing…