Those messages about being watchful in school zones might carry an added – and silent – sting this year.

Tacoma is installing three traffic cameras to catch scofflaws speeding in school zones; Federal Way also will have a trio of shutter-snapping eyes on cars near selected campuses.

Tacoma’s cameras are ready to go but awaiting permits for installation, so they weren’t deployed in time for Wednesday’s return of 29,000 students to the city’s schools.

The speedcams should be operational near Downing and McCarver elementaries and Stewart Middle School within a couple of weeks, Tacoma Police Lt. Pete Cribbin said.

In Federal Way, new cameras will snap speeders’ license plates near Saghalie Middle School and Twin Lakes Elementary with the start of classes in that city today, said Jesse Hannahs, a senior traffic engineer. A third camera, near Panther Lake Elementary, will join the force as soon as construction is completed in the area, likely within a few days, Hannahs said.

School-zone enforcement cameras are gaining popularity in the Puget Sound area and across the nation. Lakewood, Auburn and Seattle already employ them. Officials in Bellingham are talking about it. Recent news stories tell of camera crackdowns in Snohomish County’s Lynnwood and in Parma, Ohio, near Cleveland.

Their red-light camera cousins already catch motor-vehicle law breakers in Tacoma, Lakewood, Federal Way, Auburn and Puyallup.

Here’s how they work. If you’re speeding through a school zone at posted 20-mile per hour times, a camera assembly will snap your license plate and record your speed. After police review the infraction, you’ll get mailed a ticket. It can cost $101 in Tacoma, $200 in Federal Way and from $101 to $250 in Lakewood, depending on how fast you’re traveling.

That’s compared to tickets ranging from $189 to $784 if you’re written up by a live cop. Eye-on-the-street tickets don’t go on your driving record, either. They’re treated like parking infractions.

Many authorities consider the speedcams part of the important safety net thrown up around schools to keep children safe. Another piece is more human eyes and radar guns in police cars and on motorcycles, focusing on school crossings, especially at the beginning of the academic year.

“Everybody needs to be aware that school’s starting,” Pierce County Sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer said.

There aren’t any hard statistics kept in Washington on the number of accidents involving children in school zones during posted 20 mph times, the state Department of Transportation said. But records show 139 pedestrian/motor vehicle collisions and 95 bicycle/motor vehicle collisions within a quarter mile of schools on city streets in 2008, according to Charlotte Claybrooke, Safe Routes to School Coordinator for WSDOT. Figures are not available for accidents on county roads, she said.

But there is lots of evidence that motorists speed through school zones.

Auburn issued 4,279 school-zone camera tickets in 2008, said Sgt. Anthony Dechoudens of the police department’s traffic division.

One camera does double duty near Gildo Rey Elementary and Mount Baker Middle School in Auburn; others are posted near Dick Scobee and Chinook elementaries.

The city runs its cameras 30 minutes before school begins and 30 minutes after dismissal, Dechoudens said. Plans call for two more cameras, one at Lea Hill Elementary on 124th Avenue Southeast and another at Arthur Jacobsen Elementary on 132nd Avenue Southeast.

In Lakewood two vans with cameras can rove the city for placement at trouble sites. City Manager Andrew Neiditz didn’t have handy statistics, but he said, “I believe they’ve been effective in slowing down drivers in school zones.”

The legality of traffic cameras is being challenged in Washington courts, but no decision has been rendered. .

Tacoma’s school zone pilot program costs the city a lease and service fee of $48.50 per camera per month to Redflex Traffic Systems, Inc.

“It’s actually a good deal,” Cribbin said. “It doesn’t really cost the taxpayers – other than those who get caught.”

Kris Sherman: 253-597-8742

kris.sherman@thenewstribune.com

School zones get speed cameras

New traffic cameras are being deployed in Tacoma and Federal Way to catch speeders in school zones. The Tacoma cameras are awaiting permits but should be operational soon; two of three Federal Way cameras will be running with the start of school today; a third should be in use shortly. The locations:

TACOMA

 • North 26th and Orchard Streets, near Downing Elementary

 • South 23rd and J streets, near McCarver Elementary

 • South 52nd Street and Pacific Avenue, near Stewart Middle School

FEDERAL WAY

 • 21st Avenue Southwest at Southwest 338th Street, across from Saghalie Middle School

 • Southwest 320th street at 42nd Avenue Southwest, in front of Twin Lakes Elementary

 • First Avenue South north of South 348th Street at Panther Lake Elementary*