Drivers think that the speed camera on Rivertech Court in Riverdale Park is inaccurate.
Riverdale Park police say that they have the camera calibrated daily and test it quarterly.
The camera, in between College Park Academy and the Raytheon building, identifies cars going 12 mph over the 20 mph speed limit, according to the Riverdale Park website.
Camera tickets for speeding increased statewide Oct. 1. While those going 12 to 15 mph over the limit will still pay $40, fines increase at higher speeds, from $70 up to $425.
Kevin Pinto is a College Park resident with two children. He said his first ticket was on May 5, 2025.
Pinto said he knew exactly what he was doing on the night of May 5. He was driving his daughter, a starter on Roosevelt High School’s girls lacrosse team, home after the championship game of the season.
He said his daughter had torn her ACL, and so he remembers driving carefully as to not further agitate her knee. His wife drove in front of him, she did not receive a ticket.
When checking online to find out when the first occurred, he saw he had a second ticket.
“Ever since they’ve put this camera up, I’ve driven that road probably 400-500 times without incident, and then in roughly 10 days I get two tickets?” He said he remembered thinking.
Instead of paying the $40 ticket, he requested a court date. He was found not guilty for his first ticket because a police officer was not present at the court.
Pinto went back to court in September for his second ticket, and he said that this was a much worse experience.
He recalled sitting in a packed courtroom of over 100 people, waiting for his chance to plead in front of the judge. It was there where he met Tony Cisek, another person fighting a ticket from the Rivertech Court speed camera.
Cisek, a Mount Rainier resident, said that he and his partner use the street pretty regularly each week. The two have received four tickets in total, and they paid the first which listed their car’s speed at 32 mph.
After receiving a second ticket that stated a higher speed, Cisek decided to research how fast his partner was going when their car was identified.
He said that he measured the hashmarks between the start of the street and the curb, and each were 15 feet. He used the times in the photos provided to calculate the car’s speed to be about 25 mph, much lower than the 35 mph that the citation stated the car was traveling.
After requesting a court date and having to write up his testimony because he was out of town, he was found not guilty. Before that notice came in the mail, another ticket was waiting for him, he said.
“We got a third ticket which said 37 mph, which is practically drag racing on that street.” he said, “just because it’s a short run with a turn and you just made a left turn, you would really have to be flooring it to get to 37,” he continued.
Cisek said he decided to request another court date for this ticket, which is where he met Pinto.
Both said the judge transferred them to another judge who would hear their case because each plead not guilty. As far as they could tell, this judge did not specialize in traffic law.
Cisek said that he went first, attempting to convince the judge using similar calculations that he was not going anywhere near 37 mph. He said that the judge did not appreciate his argument, and that he was only found not guilty because the police officer present did not have the technical knowledge of how the camera worked.
Pinto went after Cisek, and had a similar experience once the officer was asked to explain how the camera worked. Once again, Pinto was found not guilty without being able to make his case.
He has since worked to establish a network of people with similar experiences, many of whom simply paid their tickets because they did not want to fight them. Pinto stressed that he believes that speed cameras can be an intuitive solution to managing speed, but that they must be accurate. This is a sentiment shared by Cisek as well as others who Pinto spoke with.
“I’m all for them, just make them accurate,” said Ryan Connelly, a Rockville-based meteorologist who received a ticket in December from the camera.
Connelly had access to dashcam footage that showed he was going 23 mph, so he was also found not guilty when he pleaded his case in traffic court.
Pinto said he feels responsible as a citizen to provide feedback and help improve the state of what he sees as an unreliable tool.
“This camera has to work,” he said, “If it doesn’t work, then what’s the point? All the reasons that people have for not having them become legitimized.”
Both Pinto and Cisek reached out to Community Safety Programs Manager Officer Marissa Davis. Davis told Pinto he was speeding in the case of his first ticket, which he was found not guilty for, and has yet to respond to Cisek.
Davis said, in an email on Oct. 10, that the camera has been tested by both the Police Department and an independent company. According to Davis, the department’s process includes daily calibration of the camera, quarterly testing by the department, and an annual test by an independent party.