The Los Angeles City Council has selected a vendor responsible for designing, building and operating its massive citywide network of speed limit-enforcing cameras.
Verra Mobility Corporation was chosen by the City Council to build out the city’s speed safety program, which the company says will be the largest such program in the state.
Working alongside the Los Angeles Department of Transportation, Verra Mobility will install speed limit cameras at 125 sites across the city which have been previously identified as epicenters for high-speed driving and speed-related crashes.
The program was kickstarted when California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 645 into law in October 2023. The law established a six-city pilot program aimed at curbing excessive speeding with the ultimate goal of preventing dangerous and potentially deadly collisions.
Los Angeles is one of six California cities included in the pilot program, alongside Long Beach, Glendale, Oakland, San Francisco and San Jose. L.A.’s speed enforcement system will be the most robust in the state.
Does Los Angeles need speed cameras?
California, the Los Angeles area in particular, is known as being one of the car-culture capitals of the world. From low-riders to German imports to tuners, Angelenos love driving and particularly like driving fast.
But that need for speed also comes with very obvious and potentially life-altering risks.
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For three consecutive years in Los Angeles, traffic fatalities outpaced homicides citywide. In 2023, a decade-high of 336 people died in crashes in the city while homicides totaled 327 that year. The homicide total continued to drop in consecutive years in 2024 and 2025, while deadly crashes continued to claim a a higher number of lives.
Pedestrians, in particular, have been the biggest victims of vehicle violence. That same year in 2023, 185 pedestrians were killed in traffic collisions, another modern record. There have been more than 150 pedestrians deaths on L.A. streets each of the last four years.
The rise of pedestrian deaths has been described by advocates and city leaders as a public health crisis.
Many high-profile deadly collisions in Los Angeles have made international headlines as speeding drivers claimed the lives of multiple innocents.
In August 2022, I covered the deaths of six people who were killed in a fiery crash when traveling nurse Nicole Linton sped through an intersection at speeds exceeding 130 mph. Linton was charged with murder and vehicular manslaughter, and her case is currently working its way through the judicial system.
In October 2023, days before Newsom signed AB 645 into law, four Pepperdine University students were mowed down on Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu by a driver identified as Fraser Michael Bohm, who was speeding in his dark-colored BMW when he apparently lost control, sideswiped several parked vehicles and crashed into the women who were walking. Bohm has since claimed he was being chased by another driver.
That crash happened in a notorious stretch of road where speeding and crashes are so regular it’s been dubbed by locals as “Dead Man’s Curve.” Residents have long called for safety improvements on PCH near the site of the crash, including many clamoring for speed cameras like the ones being installed in L.A. city limits.
Do speed cameras work?
While it’s important to take a grain of salt with the word of the company chosen to install said speeding cameras, studies have shown repeatedly that the cameras are an effective tool for deterring speeders.
Verra Mobility says speeding has dropped by as much as 94% in certain cities where their technology is deployed. San Francisco’s program under AB 645 saw a 50% decline in traffic fatalities in the past year and an 80% decline in speeding after one year of use.
Independent studies largely bear out claims of a decline in speeding and fatalities where speed cameras are in use. If the aim is saving lives and preventing major property damage, speed cameras work.
Still, there remain concerns about the proliferation of cameras operated by tech companies on our nation’s streets.
Privacy advocates have rightfully raised flags about the near-constant surveillance the average American faces in their day-to-day lives, from the phones in their pockets to social media companies tracking their behavior and artificial intelligence rooting itself seemingly into every aspect of the human experience.
For many, especially those who live in a region like Los Angeles where street takeovers, street races and televised high-speed chases are somewhat commonplace, privacy or road safety might seem like a real “pick your poison” proposition.
There’s no right or wrong answer. It’s murky. But the public is right to be skeptical.
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Verra Mobility does say its program will be aligned with the state’s requirements, promising “vigorous data and privacy protections, equitable fines, thoughtful education, and a balanced community approach” which it says will begin immediately.
“These programs are complex and must align with strict legislative requirements, so we are honored that the City put their trust in Verra Mobility,” said the company’s vice president Will Barnow in a news release. “As we’ve seen in other cities, these programs are highly effective at reducing dangerous driving, and we’re excited to get to work to advance our shared goal of safer streets for millions of Angelenos.”
Installation of these cameras will begin in the coming weeks. Drivers traveling 11 mph or more above the speed limit are subject to fines that start at $50 and go up based on severity of the infraction. There will be a 60-day warning period for drivers caught speeding by one of Verra Mobility’s cameras.
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