Okaloosa County asks Fort Walton Beach to refund citations from unapproved speed camera

An Okaloosa County agency official said the county has asked the city of Fort Walton Beach to refund citations issued by a speed-enforcement camera the county says was never authorized and sits in county right of way.

The official told the meeting that "the county has identified this as county right away, and the county has high confidence in that determination" and said the county would have had to approve the camera's placement "under the enabling statute" but that such approval "never happened." The official also said the county sent a letter to the city asking that "any citations written from this particular camera be refunded to those citizens."

The matter matters because the county says the use of speed-enforcement cameras raises due-process questions under state law. The agency official said the county explicitly decided in March that cameras would "not be allowed within county right of way," a policy driven by concerns about how speed-enforcement cameras operate under state statutes. The official added the county was "protecting due process first until these concerns with the statute play out in Tallahassee and in the courts."

The official identified a second camera site on Hollywood Boulevard in front of an elementary school and said right-of-way ownership at that location "is less clear," so the county has requested a title search and a legal opinion on that location. The city of Fort Walton Beach, the official said, is taking a cautious approach and also has requested a title search for both locations.

To prevent similar conflicts, the county's board asked public works and right-of-way staff to "take a comprehensive look at all of our right away inventory" and to identify specific locations where speed-enforcement and red-light cameras are installed. The official said that review will help determine whether any other cameras were improperly placed in county right of way and will give jurisdictions tools to clarify enforcement authority going forward.

The official framed the action as protecting motorists who may have received wrongful citations, saying the county is speaking up to be "their voice" and that anyone found to have been cited improperly should be "made whole." The city response to the county letter was described as cautious; the ultimate resolution — whether refunds will be issued or whether placement will be altered — was not specified in the meeting.

Next steps: the county requested title and ownership research for the Hollywood Boulevard site and ordered a right-of-way inventory review by staff. The transcript does not record a vote or final decision on refunds; the outcome depends on the city’s legal review and any further staff findings.