New state laws can be a little fuzzy sometimes, which is why the Baldwin County Sheriff's Office discontinued its RedSpeed speeding ticket program through Midway Hills Elementary School to begin the school year.
At issue is House Bill 1161, which placed new restrictions on school safety zone speeding ticket programs. The BCSO originally was under the impression that the bill prohibited RedSpeed zones 'upon a highway within a school zone with four lanes that does not have a crosswalk across such lanes.' The stretch of US 441 in front of Midway Hills obviously has four lanes, and it also has no crosswalk.
The Georgia Department of Transportation approves all RedSpeed requests, and a representative from the DOT recently offered some clarity to the Sheriff's Office. According to the DOT, the new restrictions are only for future applications, and law enforcement agencies with existing RedSpeed permits 'upon a highway within a school zone with four lanes that does not have a crosswalk across such lanes' can be grandfathered in.
Removing the Midway Hills RedSpeed zone to begin the school year already has equalled a loss of more than $10,000 for the Sheriff's Office. Out of all the RedSpeed zones in Baldwin County, the one at Midway Hills easily has produced the most speeding tickets over the past few years. A total of 5,925 citations were mailed out to speeders in front of Midway during the 2025-2026 school year, an average of 33 tickets per school day. This was nearly as many as Baldwin County's four other RedSpeed zones, combined.
The end result, from the Midway Hills zone alone, was $312,000 in revenue for the BCSO during the previous school year. RedSpeed handles the logistics side and transactional side, charging the BCSO and MPD a series of 'fees.' When it's all said and done, however, the law enforcement agencies receive 65 percent of all 'violations paid,' while RedSpeed's cut is 35 percent.