Chicago is the only city in Illinois to operate automatic speed cameras, and when they were programmed to be less tolerant in March 2021, revenues soared. According to an original investigation by the Illinois Policy Institute, when Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot decreased the cameras’ ticket-issuing threshold to 6 mph from 10 mph, so many tickets were issued that the first 10 months of 2021 tallied as many tickets as were issued in the three prior years combined. Chicago speed cameras issued 2.3 million tickets in that period, about a ticket every 11 seconds. That delivered a large cost to taxpayers: $73.8 million worth of tickets through October, according to open records requests by the Institute. “The new speed camera ticketing policy has become a huge cash machine for a city constantly on the financial edge – without it demonstrating significant improvements to safety,” said Adam Schuster, senior director of budget and tax research for the Illinois Policy Institute. “The city should ban these cameras and stop using them to manage its perpetual budget shortfall and hefty debt. Ultimately, this is another cog in a nickel-and-dime strategy of arduous city taxes and fees passed onto hard-working Chicagoans. To view the full report, “Chicago’s speed cameras ticket 8X faster after limit drops to 6 mph,” visit illin.is/speedcameras.