City of Baldwin Police Chief Jeff Branyon responded to comments he’s seen via social media regarding the school zone outside of Baldwin Elementary that has attracted controversy over the past few weeks.
“So there’s been a lot of social media discussion about the speed cameras, and I generally don’t like to respond to social media because there’s no accountability,” Branyon said. “Things go out on social media, nobody verifies or fact-checks what’s out there. We don’t have that luxury. We only provide factual information.”
Branyon said that after seeing some of the comments that were made, he wanted to address some misinformation that was posted online. In addition to his comments, the city is adding a fact sheet surrounding the speed zone to their website.
The school/speed zone became a hot topic two weeks ago when former Baldwin Councilman Jeff Parrish approached the Baldwin City Council Monday night to discuss issues he, and other citizens, have with the speed zone. Parrish raised a series of concerns surrounding ticket contesting, legalities and reasoning for the speed zone.
Chief Branyon, members of the Baldwin City Council and Habersham Schools Superintendent Matthew Cooper were quick to defend the zone, which uses laser technology to catch drivers speeding in the school zone outside of Baldwin Elementary.
“When we see posts saying ‘I got a ticket for going one mile over the speed limit,’ that’s just not correct, that doesn’t happen,” Branyon said. He says that tickets are only issued to drivers going more than 10 miles over the speed limit.
Branyon also clarified that the school zone is not 27/4.
“[The speed limit is] 25 miles an hour for an hour in the morning when buses are unloading, 25 miles an hour in the afternoon, when they’re getting ready to go home.,” Branyon said. “It’s 25 [MPH] during those two hours of the day, the rest of the day is 35 [MPH]— and not on snow days, teacher workdays, holidays, summer break [or] spring break. Anytime school is not occupied, they’re off.”
RELATED: Habersham Superintendent, Baldwin Police Chief respond to school zone concerns
He says that speeding through the school zone only saves drivers seconds, while it could cost a child their life.
He says that it takes 57 seconds to get through the school zone at 25 MPH, and 40.6 seconds to get through the school zone at 45 MPH. Going 10 MPH over the speed limit, according to Branyon, only saves about 8 seconds of time.
“Don’t speed in the school zone, we want to keep our kids safe,” Branyon said. “The program’s legal, it’s not a speed trap. You don’t get ticketed for [going] one or two miles an hour [over the speed limit].”
You can watch a recording of the meeting here.
