5 Ohio Speed Trap Towns Drivers Learn About the Hard Way

In one Ohio village, nearly 23,000 drivers were cited for speeding on a three-quarter-mile stretch of I-77 in about three years.

Stretches like that are why you should be extra careful about slowing down the second you cross certain town lines.

Here are the Ohio speed trap towns drivers learn about the hard way, and what’s behind each one’s reputation.

Note: This is general information, not legal advice. Traffic laws, fines and court rules are subject to change, so confirm the current requirements with the court that issued your ticket.

1. Linndale

Linndale, a Cuyahoga County village of about 180 people, had speed traps under the West 117th Street freeway overpass, according to the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History.

For a time, about 80% of the village’s yearly income was believed to come from traffic fines.

Cleveland Scene reported that the village issued more than 4,000 speeding tickets in 2011 alone.

If you drove I-71 through Linndale, you crossed a 422-yard stretch described as an epicenter of the ticketing.

Then the state stepped in.

Linndale had 179 people, short of the 201 residents a village needs to run a mayor’s court, Court News Ohio reported in December 2012.

In 2013, the State of Ohio dissolved the Linndale Mayor’s Court.

If you got a ticket there after that, your case was set to head to Parma Municipal Court.

2. Brice

In 2016, Brice, a Franklin County village, collected $171,611 from speed camera citations.

That was 73 percent of the village’s general fund.

The Ohio Auditor’s 2022 release described Brice as a speed trap that relied on automated speeding citations to pay the bills.

Fines, licenses and permits made up 76% and 81% of general fund receipts in 2020 and 2019.

Camera fees were more than 99% of those collections, and they totaled nearly $2.3 million from 2015 to 2020.

If you paid a camera fine there between 2015 and 2020, your money went into that total.

Brice had suspended its camera device as of May 24, 2021, according to court documents.

The Columbus Dispatch reported in November 2024 that Brice was using speed cameras along Brice Road again.

The cameras were first active on Aug. 20, 2024.

3. New Miami

In July 2012, New Miami’s village council passed an ordinance to run speed cameras on State Route 127.

If you drove State Route 127 above 46 mph where the posted limit was 35 mph, the cameras flagged your vehicle.

Over 20 months, more than 31,000 notices went out.

A notice gave you the option to pay the $95 fine or contest the violation.

The camera company, OptoTraffic, kept 40% of the fines.

Of about $3 million paid, about $1.8 million went to the village and $1.2 million to the company.

A class action followed in 2013, and an injunction in March 2014 stopped the program.

In February 2022, the Ohio Supreme Court voted 4-3 that it had improvidently accepted the case, a decision not to decide it.

Court News Ohio’s summary says the village won’t have to refund $3 million to motorists.

Three justices disagreed.

Justice R. Patrick DeWine, joined by Justices Donnelly and Brunner, dissented and described the program as a speed trap.

4. Newburgh Heights

Nearly 23,000 drivers were cited on a three-quarter-mile stretch of I-77 in Newburgh Heights since the fall of 2015.

News 5 Cleveland reported the figure in 2018 and called Newburgh Heights a Cuyahoga County village of 2,000 residents.

The village’s mayor said the cameras brought in $2.4 million in revenue before expenses the year before the report.

The report’s headline referred to Newburgh Heights speed trap fines.

If a ticket made you worry about your credit, the same headline said the fines wouldn’t harm credit scores.

After a 2022 Ohio Supreme Court ruling, the General Assembly can reduce a municipality’s state funding by the amount of income its cameras generate.

The ruling prompted Newburgh Heights to turn off its Harvard Avenue traffic cameras in May 2022.

5. North Hampton

If you’ve heard North Hampton called a speed trap, here’s the number behind it: 1,296 citations written in 2008, according to a Springfield News-Sun review of that year’s data.

That was nearly four times as many tickets as the 352 people who lived in the Clark County village.

The paper called its review “Anatomy of a speed trap.”

Only six of nearly 1,300 tickets went to North Hampton residents.

In 2008, the village’s mayor’s court had the fifth-highest traffic caseload of all 330 in Ohio, at 375 cases per 100 people.

The village collected $198,268 in fines in 2008, while the police department cost $218,914.

That left a $20,646 gap.

North Hampton police and village officials called the village’s reputation unfair.

Speed Camera Law Changes

Ohio changed its speed camera rules on June 30, 2025, under House Bill 54.

Counties and townships can’t use the cameras anymore.

Villages and cities can still use them under the statute’s conditions, so you can still meet a camera there.

One condition is that a law enforcement officer must be present at the device at all times while it operates.

An officer at the device who personally witnesses a violation can write you a ticket on the spot.

Mayor's Court Caseloads

Ohio's mayor's courts must report their caseloads to the Supreme Court every quarter.

If you want to check a village, the Supreme Court hosts a Mayor's Court Caseload Statistics Report.

The Springfield News-Sun's analysis of 2016 data found Hanging Rock in Lawrence County had the highest ticket rate in the state.

North Hampton ranked sixth in that analysis, with 933 mayor's court cases, or 195 for every 100 residents.

That works out to nearly two cases for every resident.

Some villages walk away.