Ocilla Police partners with RedSpeed Georgia to enhance school zone safety

OCILLA, Ga. – A controversial safety measure is making its way to the city of Ocilla. And we spoke with the chief of police about the need for this measure in school zones.

Ocilla Police Chief, Ashley Jones met with us Thursday morning along the highway in front of Irwin County Elementary School…

As we talked about the installation and need RedSpeed cameras.

“From the police point of view right now, just being shorthanded and manpower issues and everything as every department across south Georgia is pretty much facing. The ability to use this technology to help increase school safety, not only for the kids while they’re in school, but while they’re traveling to and from school…” said Chief Ashley Jones, Ocilla Police Department.

For those familiar with them across our area, RedSpeed cameras were installed around Albany area schools several years ago, and have been a point of contention…

But… Chief Jones is hoping this will lead to safer driving in school zones.

“As long as you’re not going at least 11 miles over the speed limit, you will not be getting a citation or a violation in the mail. We just ask for everybody to go, the speed limit…” said Chief Jones.

Especially in the case of the elementary school, being along a largely empty highway.

“The RedSpeed Georgia conducted a speed study for the city of Ocilla, and they found that between this road and the road over on Brushy Creek that there was 285 people running at least 11 miles over the posted speed limit on just one particular day. And, that is that is a lot of speeders in one day,” said Chief Jones.

And… at the end of the day, it comes down to one thing…

“We want to make sure our kids and our students are protected, not only when they’re in the school, when at the school, but while they’re on the way to and from school,” said Chief Jones.

Chief Jones says that the RedSpeed cameras Are set to go online in the next 30 days. And, that for the first month of activation, they’ll be handing out warnings to speeders.

The Ocilla police chief says that much like the RedSpeed cameras in Albany, these will be active starting from an hour before school starts to an hour after school ends.

Brian Roche reporting.

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