After 3 decades living in WestCentral FL counties, I learned something about local police departments. You can measure the ethics of the police chief (and to a lesser degree, county commissioners), by whether they embrace or refuse revenue-generating traffic cameras.

    a school speed zone camera caught him going 38 mph when he thought 
    the speed limit was 40mph because the school speed zone sign wasn’t
    flashing when he was driving past an elementary school near his home. 

    In fact, despite the sign stating, "20 mph when flashing," the sign 
    isn’t even equipped with a flashing beacon.

    As a result, Weaver believes the cameras have become an easy money grab
    for counties and cities using a vaguely written law to cash in on drivers.

Bad sheriffs and bad officials adore cash-spewing traffic cams.

Hillsborough county officials have clearly lost their way.

> the signage requirements for school speed zones only require signs to designate when the school zone is in effect. So even if a school speed zone sign states that drivers must slow down “when [the light is] flashing,” that light doesn’t have to actually be flashing for a driver to get cited.

I'm a little confused. If the light isn't flashing, doesn't that mean that the school zone isn't in effect? I don't understand what about the law makes it possible to get cited when the light isn't flashing.

(Florida)

I've been reading the law, linked in the news site; and, the document says, among many other things, in 316.0776(3)(a),

(emphasis mine)

  "the county or municipality MUST NOTIFY the public that a speed detection system may be in use BY POSTING SIGNAGE
  indicating photographic or video enforcement of the school zone speed limits. Such signage SHALL CLEARLY DESIGNATE
  THE TIME PERIOD DURING WHICH THE SCHOOL ZONE SPEED LIMITS ARE ENFORCED using a speed detection system"

So it looks like the flashing light is a backup and enhancer and that the more important field is the current time of day.

Under the assumption that the time range text is easily visible, not covered in trees, not tiny, able to be seen by a person driving at the regularly posted speed from a distance that they can safely and reasonably slow down, etc, then it doesn't seem terrible.

THAT SAID, they should absolutely *FIX* the blinking lights.

In part of the article, it is declared that the traffic cameras caught 500,000 violations this school year ("since fall") across Florida, which is ... concerningly high. That's several thousand per day. Across all Florida, but still. Only about 3000 people protested across that; and, assuming all protests were genuine, that's less than a 1% broken light rate, which means broken lights are probably pretty quickly fixed.

I hope the signage either already has prominent time ranges and/or will have prominent time ranges in the near future. My thoughts on this are certainly complicated.

You should also read up on towing laws. It is up there with civil forfeiture.