A motorist driving a small Toyota hatchback turned into the Laurel Oak neighborhood off Bee Ridge Road in Sarasota County on an afternoon in late February.
As the driver made his way through the community entrance, a camera inside the private subdivision captured the car going 39 mph. The speed limit was only 25 mph. Within a month, an unusual citation arrived in the mail demanding $125 — issued not from police or the sheriff’s office, but from the neighborhood HOA that controls the street.
The Laurel Oak Estates and Country Club homeowners’ association has begun issuing speeding fines using automated license-plate readers and speed-capturing cameras, penalizing not only residents but anyone who drives through the neighborhood…