‘Photo enforced’: Speed cameras are proliferating along Delaware highways, neighborhood streets

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If you’re driving in Delaware and see the words “PHOTO ENFORCED” under a speed limit sign, make sure to check your speedometer and if necessary, slow down.

That’s because there’s likely a big gray contraption nearby that’s snapping photographs of your vehicle.

And if you’re speeding, expect a ticket to be arriving in the mail.

Instead of having police sit on the roadside with radar guns to catch violators, the state and some local governments are using “automatic speed enforcement cameras.”

These machines — ground-based metal structures that are about 4 feet tall and 2 feet wide — are starting to proliferate around the state, spitting out tickets that will cost speeders roughly $100.

Fines will be higher for speeders in highway work zones, but authorities stressed that the tickets won’t add points to their driver’s license or affect their insurance bills.

First approved by the state legislature in 2021 for a pilot project that targeted speeders through a construction zone on I-95 in Wilmington and then codified by lawmakers in 2023, the program has expanded.

Currently, cameras are being used at these four locations:

• I-95 southbound and northbound, at the work zone around Route 896 near Newark.
• Route 1 southbound near Lewes, where the Minos Conaway construction project is underway.
• Hillside Road in Newark, northbound and southbound, between Sypherd Drive and West Main Street.
• McKennan’s Church and Milltown roads in New Castle County, northbound and southbound, near the Sherwood Park neighborhood.

The Sherwood Park-area cameras will be issuing tickets for those who exceed the speed limit by at least 6 mph.

The rest are sending tickets only to drivers caught going at least 11 mph above the limit.

More cameras are coming, though.

Later this year, when the state Department of Transportation’s work near Route 896 is completed, the cameras will be moved a few miles north to a project near Churchmans Marsh near Stanton, but only in the northbound lane.

Newark also has 14 other locations where its camera will be utilized in one location at a time. The city will move the camera as it deems necessary.

In addition, the state has had preliminary discussions with the city of Wilmington and two unidentified municipalities — one each in Kent and Sussex counties — about installing speeding cameras.

Daniel Walker, Wilmington Mayor John Carney’s deputy chief of staff, emphasized that Delaware’s largest city hasn’t decided to install cameras.

“We are investigating whether the utilization of speed enforcement cameras is the best option for our city,” Walker told WHYY News.

‘A level of enforcement that is otherwise not possible’

Officials said the cameras reduce crashes, save lives and are far more efficient and cost-effective than having officers do the job.

“This technology allows a level of enforcement that is otherwise not possible,” DelDOT spokesman C.R. McLeod said. “One of the the most frequent and common complaints that we get in this state, between DelDOT and law enforcement, is speeding. This is another tool in the toolbox that’s been used successfully in other states. We’ve been able to implement it, and we’re seeing similar results. The police can’t be everywhere at every time.”

McLeod noted that while DelDOT uses the cameras only in the construction zones, he’s curious to see how they work in neighborhood areas.

“It’ll be interesting to see what the impact is on these local roads,” McLeod said.

McLeod said DelDOT uses highway signs and even electronic billboards to warn drivers their speed is being monitored.

“We’re not trying to play gotcha,” he said.

“Gotcha” or not, even with the signage warnings, the cameras have proved to be a lucrative source of cash for the state.

From April 2022, when the cameras started rolling in Wilmington and issuing automated tickets, through March 2025, when the highway camera at Route 896 had begun operating, the state issued 126,268 tickets and collected $9.8 million, McLeod said.

Figures for the last 12 months at Route 896 and the Route 1 project near Lewes are still being finalized, McLeod said.

Newark targets 15 locations; New Castle County has 2

Tom Coleman, Newark’s city manager, said its program began March 24, with its one camera in the 25 mph Hillside Road zone.

For the first 30 days, only warnings are being issued. But starting April 23, actual tickets with actual fines will begin going out for all violations.

During the first several days, about 140 automated warnings were mailed out every day, but the number has subsided somewhat, Coleman said.

Coleman said “PHOTO ENFORCED” signs have been installed at all 15 designated locations, so even though only will have a camera placed there, officials hope those signs cause drivers to slow down even if there’s no automated enforcement there at that time.

Coleman said Newark isn’t using its program to raise revenue, because all money beyond the city’s own cost reverts to the state. Instead, he said that the city where the University of Delaware is located is merely reacting to citizen concerns about danger from speeders in their neighborhoods.

“It’s pretty simple. Speed kills,” Coleman said, citing statistics from the National Transportation Safety Board.

“At 20 miles an hour, 95% of pedestrians that are hit survive,” Coleman said. “At 30 miles an hour, that drops to 55%, and at 40 miles an hour it’s 15%. That’s a dramatic difference. While it may not seem like a big deal to be going 10 to 15 miles an hour over the speed limit, that could be the difference between life or death.”

He also stressed that the program is not a permanent solution, but one that will give the city time to plan, design and implement traffic-calming engineering solutions.

In the Sherwood Park areas of New Castle County, the program kicked off Wednesday, but like Newark, warnings will be issued for the first month, county police Sgt. Greg Bruno said.

“On May 15 it will go live,” Bruno said, with fines for anyone caught going at least 6 mph above the speed limit.

The stretch of McKennan’s Church Road where cameras will operate has a 30 mph speed limit. The limit on the Milltown Road section is 35 mph.

Bruno echoed Newark’s Coleman in saying the county isn’t trying to inflict financial pain on drivers and is just trying to respond to residents’ concerns about speeders.

“I don’t want to go into a war of he said, she said, and what people think of it,” Bruno said. “But all in all, it’s for the good of the residents who have been complaining about the speeding on the roads. We’re looking out for safety here.”

Sherwood Park resident Michele Goifre Pyle said she’s delighted to see the cameras installed and the signs alerting drivers about the photo enforcement.

She said getting out of the neighborhood in her car is difficult because there’s so much traffic, including speeders, and there have been several accidents, including a fatality.

“With all the traffic it’s just very bad,” Giofre Pyle said. “Now we’re going to try these cameras. So, who knows? Hopefully this makes people think twice.”

New Castle County Councilman Tim Sheldon, who has represented the area for more than two decades, said residents have been clamoring for relief for speeders.

He said other council members in the county of some 587,000 residents also want the camera put in their speeding-prone areas, so the Sherwood Park area won’t have it forever.

But for now, the cameras are in the Sherwood Park area.

“It’s what my constituents want. That’s how I get voted in,” Sheldon said. “That’s what I’m doing whether I think it’s necessary or not. I’m doing what I’m told.”