Washington, D.C. has a lot of cameras and a lot of tickets, and one law firm’s new ranking says the District took the national lead in speed-camera fines per resident. The Weisberg report puts the District’s 2025 assessed fines at $257.8 million, ahead of New York City’s $223.2 million, even though New York wrote nearly twice as many tickets. Per resident, the report has D.C. at $371.66, with Suffolk, Virginia in second at $110.80.
The firm is a Virginia traffic-defense practice, so it has a professional interest in this topic. Read the ranking as a motivated analysis built on public numbers, not a government audit.
Assessed isn’t collected
The report counts fines assessed, not money received. A $100 ticket mailed to a car registered two states away is a line item until somebody pays it. The study also sorts by per-capita fines, which flatters a small, commuter-heavy jurisdiction. Plenty of the people paying aren’t residents.
Why D.C. tickets pay so well
The average fine in the report works out to $113.73, but the D.C. schedule has a real ceiling. DDOT’s notices say fines run from $100 to $500 depending on how far over the limit you were. Every new camera gets a 30-day warning phase after “Photo Enforced” signs go up, then real notices of infraction begin.
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That structure explains why the per-ticket average sits near the bottom of the range. Most violations are the entry tier. The money comes from volume.
The law behind it
The authority is plain. Under D.C. Code § 50-2209.01, violations caught by automated enforcement count as moving violations, and recorded images are prima facie evidence that an infraction occurred. They can be submitted without authentication. That makes contesting a ticket harder than people expect. You aren’t arguing against an officer’s recollection. You’re arguing against a photograph the statute treats as sufficient.
One consumer protection matters in the same section. Your license can’t be suspended for failing to answer a notice, skipping a hearing, or not paying a camera fine.
Where the money goes
D.C. once earmarked camera revenue. The Vision Zero fund statute set aside money collected above fixed thresholds for traffic-safety work. The same code page notes that, as of October 1, 2024, any money in that fund moved to the General Fund’s unrestricted balance. Whatever you think of the cameras, that’s a meaningful change to the “it’s all for safety” pitch, because the dedicated pot no longer exists in that form.
The Weisberg report leans on that tension. It argues that a single camera producing a large share of a city’s fine revenue is hard to defend as a safety-first placement. It estimates the northbound Potomac River Freeway camera near 25th Street NW at roughly $25,100 in daily fines. Annualized, that’s north of $9 million from one pole. The report doesn’t say whether that pace has held year-round.
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The other side of the argument is also on the record. The report notes federal research backing properly run speed cameras as a way to reduce speeding and crashes, and it says D.C. traffic deaths fell from 52 in 2024 to 25 in 2025. Both things can be true: cameras can cut deaths and still be a very dependable revenue stream. Which one drove each placement decision is the part nobody outside the District government can verify.
What owners should do
- Sign up for alerts. The DMV runs a Ticket Alert Service for registered vehicles. Fines can escalate if ignored, so catching a notice early matters.
- Respect the warning window, but don’t trust it. The 30-day grace period applies per camera deployment, not per driver. A camera that has been live for a year gives you nothing.
- Mind the cheap-looking spots. Freeway-style stretches with a drop in the posted limit are exactly where the volume comes from. Set the limiter or cruise control before you reach the camera, not after.
- Check your insurer. The statute classifies these as moving violations, but how a carrier treats a camera ticket varies. Ask yours; don’t assume.
The ranking proves less than its headline suggests, and the numbers underneath are still hard to wave away: a quarter-billion dollars in assessed fines, backed by a statute that treats the photo as proof. Congress has already shown interest in dismantling the program. How that fight ends decides whether the money keeps coming.
If one pole can throw off an estimated $9 million a year, should the city have to show that camera is there for safety first, or is “both things can be true” a good enough answer?