Monthly Chicago speed camera violations climbed to their highest level in more than three years during July 2025 following Mayor Brandon Johnson’s introduction of 22 new cameras. More cameras in new locations gave Johnson more cash.
Chicago’s speed cameras issued more violations to drivers during the month of July 2025 than any month during the past three years, sending an average 8,457 tickets to motorists each day.
Analysis shows Chicago’s speed cameras issued 2,210,254 violations to drivers between August 2024 and July 2025, including more than 250,000 tickets during July. That’s more tickets than any month since May 2022.
Overall, tickets took a 1% drop from the previous 12 months through July. The rapid spike in new tickets started in June, when Mayor Brandon Johnson added 22 speed cameras. Some communities received far more tickets than others.
Neighborhoods on the city’s North Side have the most cameras at 50 and see the bulk of tickets, totaling 634,608 in the 12-month period. The Southwest Side saw the largest spike in speed camera tickets per camera, jumping 42%.
Drivers on the Southeast Side continued to get the most tickets from each of the 11 cameras. They averaged 19,521 tickets per camera through July, more than triple the tickets per camera issued in the Central District, which includes the Loop, and has nine cameras.
Among the 58 Chicago neighborhoods with speed cameras, drivers passing through the Beverly community of the Southwest side received the most violations during the period. Drivers were handed 169,205 tickets, more than eight times the neighborhood’s total population. North Park on the city’s North Side received the second-most tickets at 107,031.
A decade-long city study of collisions around Chicago speed cameras shows total crashes declined by 2% between 2012 and 2022 compared to a 27% increase in collisions citywide during that time.
The Chicago collision study indicates speed cameras reduced total crashes around 53% of camera sites. But whether those cameras were changing driving habits and increasing collisions outside of designated camera sites was not addressed.
A 2017 speed camera study in Great Britain found safety was highly localized around intersections with speed cameras. Drivers sped up after the camera zones and had crashes nearby.
An Arizona study found no effect on collisions from the cameras. University of Illinois-Chicago research also concluded there was “little relationship between the number of tickets issued and the safety impact of cameras.”
While Johnson has argued speed cameras improve safety, he also pledged during his campaign to phase them out.
“The choice should not be between inequitable, regressive taxation and the potential for increased traffic violence,” Johnson wrote in his Sun-Times candidate questionnaire. “Lowering the speed limit is a cash grab and has not proven effective in making our streets any safer.”
Johnson said the city should invest in “more effective means of traffic calming, including reduced speed limits and car access in select areas, car-free zones, speed bumps, safer intersections and improved biking infrastructure.”
Johnson’s counting on 50 new speed cameras to raise an additional $11.4 million for his 2025 budget. That’s the opposite of what he pledged voters, and drivers are already paying the price for that broken promise.
