The town of Riverdale Park removed and replaced speed cameras on Rivertech Court near College Park Academy last week.
Some drivers had claimed one of the cameras was incorrectly reading their speeds and issuing them inaccurate tickets as a result. Now, a new temporary camera is located on the opposite side of the road, in front of College Park Academy.
Riverdale Park police have not responded to a request for comment.
Speed cameras read the speed of a passing car once they are in the camera’s line of sight. Any car traveling 12 mph or higher over the 20 mph speed limit is identified, according to the town’s website.
The camera that some drivers said was faulty was located on the Raytheon building’s side of the street, and looked like a black metal box.
“The camera’s fixed, nobody else has to worry about it,” said Kevin Pinto, a College Park resident who previously fought two tickets from the original camera and was found not guilty in both cases.
Pinto said that he calculated his own speed for each of these tickets and found he was driving under 32 mph in both cases. When he took his evidence to court, he was found not guilty because a police officer either was not present in the first case or could not explain the technical aspects of how the camera worked in the second.
Pinto said he has not received any tickets from the camera since the replacement, but that he did take his mother-in-law to court for a ticket she had gotten in the summer recently. She was also found not guilty, though in her case the court was not hearing evidence for not guilty pleas, he said.
Tickets for driving 12-15 mph over the limit are $40. Following a statewide increase on Oct. 1, fines increase at higher speeds, going up to $425.