Palm Beach County commissioners approve preliminary reading to allow school-zone speed cameras while legal challenge proceeds

The Palm Beach County Board of County Commissioners voted 7-0 on April 14, 2026, to give preliminary reading and permission to advertise an ordinance that would allow automated speed-zone detection systems in school zones in unincorporated Palm Beach County.

The measure directs staff to advertise the proposed ordinance and begin the ordinance process, but commissioners and county legal staff repeatedly said any active enforcement or contract execution would be deferred while a legal challenge to similar programs works through the courts. "It could be a month, it could be a year," the county attorney said of the pending appeals, noting a Broward County circuit judge had declared a comparable program unconstitutional and the matter was before the Fourth District Court of Appeal.

Why it matters: county staff told commissioners a list of candidate locations — variously described as a list of 40 of 53 schools and, in later remarks, as 34 identified school sites in unincorporated areas — as places that…