Los Angeles “Speed Cam" Program to Begin This Fall

Sometime in the coming weeks, Los Angeles will begin switching on the largest network of automated speed cameras in California history. Under a five-year pilot program authorized by Assembly Bill 645, the city is installing up to 125 camera systems on streets selected for their history of speeding, speed-related crashes, and proximity to schools, parks, senior centers, and heavily traveled corridors. Installation began this summer, and the Los Angeles Department of Transportation expects the program to go live in late summer or fall of 2026. If you drive in Los Angeles, the era of the mailed speeding ticket is about to begin.

The mechanics are similar to the red-light cameras Californians already know. When a vehicle passes a camera at 11 miles per hour or more over the posted limit, the system photographs the license plate and a citation is mailed to the registered owner, regardless of who was behind the wheel. The penalties are civil fines rather than criminal violations: $50 for driving 11 to 15 mph over the limit, $100 for 16 to 25 mph over, $200 for 26 mph and above, and $500 for speeds of 100 mph or more. A violation at 100 mph or more is also forwarded to the DMV, which can pursue administrative penalties up to license suspension. No points are added to a driver’s record, and state law requires payment plans and reduced fines for lower-income drivers.

Drivers will get fair warning before the fines start. The law requires a 60-day grace period after the cameras are activated, during which violators receive warning notices in the mail rather than citations, and the same grace period applies each time cameras are added on new streets. City officials have also committed the program’s revenue to street-safety improvements (better crosswalks, signals, and traffic-calming measures) rather than to the general fund.

San Francisco has already shown Californians what these cameras can do. That city activated 33 cameras in March 2025 as the first jurisdiction under AB 645, and the results during the first year were striking: the number of drivers traveling at least 10 mph over the limit at camera locations fell by nearly 80 percent. The program has proven popular enough that on July 15, 2026, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted 10 to 1 to ask the Legislature to lift the state-imposed cap so the city can install cameras at dozens of additional high-injury locations. Speeding, in short, collapses when drivers know a camera is watching.

The stakes could not be higher. State data show that deaths and serious injuries from speed-related crashes in California have climbed 52 percent since 2010, and speed remains the single biggest factor in whether a pedestrian survives being struck: a person hit at 40 mph is far more likely to die than a person hit at 25 mph. As personal injury attorneys, we see the aftermath of these crashes every week (the shattered pelvises, the brain injuries, the families planning funerals) and we see how often the difference between a close call and a catastrophe was nothing more than speed.

The cameras will also change how crash cases are proven. Under California law, a driver who violates the speed law and causes injury may be found negligent, and until now, proving speed usually required accident reconstruction experts, skid-mark analysis, or data pulled from a vehicle’s event recorder. A camera that documents a defendant traveling 26 mph over the limit seconds before impact is powerful evidence, and the presence of camera systems on a corridor means that objective speed data may now exist in cases where it never would have before. Injured people and their attorneys should act quickly to identify any nearby camera and preserve its records, because retention periods for this kind of footage are often short.

Some drivers will grumble, and court challenges to automated enforcement are nothing new, but the Legislature wrote AB 645 carefully: the program is a pilot, the fines are modest and income-adjusted, the money goes back into safety, and the cameras are placed where people are being hurt. Weigh a $50 fine against a lifetime of caring for a child struck in a school zone, and the policy question answers itself.

Our advice is simple. Watch your speed, especially near schools and parks, because the corridors chosen for cameras are by definition the corridors where speeding kills. Expect a warning notice first, then real fines. If you receive a citation for a vehicle someone else was driving, the notices include a process for contesting it. And if you or someone you love is injured by a speeding driver anywhere in Los Angeles, remember that the city’s new cameras may have captured exactly the evidence your case needs; an experienced attorney can move fast to find out.

CONTACT PHILLIPS & ASSOCIATES TODAY

If you or a loved one has been injured in an auto accident, contact Phillips & Associates at (818) 348-9515 for a free consultation today. You will immediately be put in touch with John Phillips or Patrick DiFilippo, who can help determine whether you have a case and advise you on the best course of action moving forward.