People who paid up after getting caught speeding on a Fort Washington road are getting back their $40 due to a technicality. The Prince George’s County Police Department learned earlier this month that we operated a speed camera in the county without first advertising that camera’s location in a newspaper. Placing those advertisements is required by state law. A WUSA9 inquiry led us to this discovery.
The camera in question was posted at the St. Ignatius Loyola School in the 2300 block of Brinkley Road in Fort Washington. Once we became aware of this advertising omission, the camera was immediately taken down. It appears that while the correct location and advertisement was initially sent to a newspaper for publication, the location was inadvertently removed from the final proof. All other protocol required by the state was followed in connection to this camera– including proper signage, site testing and advertising on the Prince George’s County website. @PGPDNews also advertised the camera location.
The camera was first posted in November of 2012. Since then, it has issued tickets to 2,059 speeders. Nearly 1,500 of the violations will be refunded and the rest will be voided. The refunds total more than $58,000. The offenders should begin receiving the refunds within 45 days. This camera location issued just .002% of our total issued tickets.
This appears to be an isolated incident. To make it easier for drivers to find, we’ll re-advertise the entire list of camera locations in the Gazette within the next two weeks. This information has been available on our county website since before the camera became operational in the fall of 2012.
Source: PGPD News Blog
