Who gets the money from LA's speed cameras
A private company gets a flat fee for every camera, every month, no matter how many tickets go out. The rest of the fine money is locked to street safety projects. None of it goes to the city's general budget.
The company: Verra Mobility
The cameras are run by Verra Mobility (legal name American Traffic Solutions), a company traded on the Nasdaq. It also runs the camera programs in San Francisco, Oakland, Glendale and Long Beach.
The cap is $33.4 million in camera fees (125 cameras for five years) plus up to $5 million to mail notices. LA did not run its own bidding process. It reused the contract Oakland had already signed, at Oakland's prices, and the mayor waived the usual review.
State law limits how Verra can be paid. It cannot earn money per ticket or take a percentage of fines, it cannot decide who gets a ticket, and it cannot sell or reuse the data it collects.
Where your fine goes
- First, the program's own costs. That includes Verra's fees, postage, and city staff who review and process tickets. LADOT puts the yearly running cost at $7.95 million.
- Then, traffic calming. Anything left over must be spent on things like speed humps, crosswalks and road redesigns within three years.
- If the city doesn't spend it, the state takes it. Leftover money goes to California's Active Transportation Program.
So the money doesn't go to the city's general budget, and it can't patch budget holes like the more than $200 million overspend the city faced when the cameras were approved in March 2026. LADOT has told the City Council it expects no impact on the General Fund.
Who paid to start it
The startup money was $4.78 million in local transportation sales tax: $589,262 from Measure R and $4,185,912 from Measure M. Fine revenue pays it back first.
The math
The city has not published a revenue forecast. The National Motorists Association, which opposes speed cameras, estimates about $64 million a year, based on San Francisco's early ticket numbers.
A flat fee cuts both ways. Verra earns the same whether drivers slow down or not. But the city has to collect enough fines to cover a fixed bill, every month, for five years.
The case for and against
Supporters point to the deaths. Speeding caused about one in five fatal crashes in Los Angeles in 2024, and 290 people died on the city's streets in 2025. San Francisco reports up to a 72% drop in speeding on corridors with cameras. The City Council approved the program 14 to 0.
Opponents of the state law included the ACLU, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Black Lives Matter California, mostly over privacy and fairness to low-income drivers. Others object to a no-bid contract and to a program that has to keep tickets flowing to pay its bills.
Drivers with low incomes can get the fine cut by 50% to 80%, pay in installments of $25 a month or less, or do community service instead.
Sources
- Westside Current: the $38 million contract and the Oakland piggyback
- The Auto Wire: per-camera fee, startup funding, break-even math
- Westside Current: the council vote and the city budget
- California Senate analysis of AB 645: vendor pay rules, revenue rules, supporters and opponents
- New York Post: revenue estimate and LADOT running costs
- Traffic Technology Today: Verra's other California contracts
- LADOT Speed Safety System
Checked October 28, 2026. See something wrong? Email [email protected].