Photo by Photos by Chip Py

You know that old claim that a police officer will let you slide if you’re only speeding less than 10 miles over the speed limit? Well, MPD’s got a little secret—the same tolerance applies to tickets given out by many of the city’s speeding cameras.

At yesterday’s task force meeting on traffic cameras and fines, Lisa Sutter, MPD’s Program Manager for the Photo Enforcement Program, said that between 75 and 80 percent of all tickets given out by the cameras are for speeding between 11-15 miles an hour over the posted speed limit ($125 fine), and 17 to 20 percent are for those driving between 16 and 20 miles an hour over the limit ($150 fine). But for those caught driving between 1 and 10 miles an hour above the limit ($75 fine), she said during the meeting, tickets are rarely sent out to the offender.

MPD is loathe to admit this—Sutter wouldn’t directly deny or confirm this fact after the task force’s meeting—but John Townsend of Mid-Atlantic AAA said that to his knowledge, tolerance for speeders on the low end of the spectrum does exist across the country.

And while in D.C. it’s an unspoken practice, in Maryland it was written into the law—you have to be traveling at least 12 miles an hour over the speed limit to get a ticket from a speed camera. (Additionally, the cameras are limited to school zones, work zones on interstates and residential zones with speed limits at or below 35 mph.)

Is a little tolerance a good idea? For D.C. drivers who complain that some speed cameras are set to artificially low speed limits—Porter Street NW, set at 30 mph, is often cited as an example—the answer is simple: yes. For others, though, tolerance at certain speeds on certain roads isn’t a good idea—being hit by a car traveling at 30 mph versus 40 mph on a side street can produce very different results, they say.

But that tolerance exists somewhat changes the dynamic in the debate over whether D.C. should be using speed cameras or not. Proponents of the cameras can now say that the people who get tickets really are speeding, and not merely inching along just over the posted speed limit.

Be forewarned, though—Sutter didn’t say that the same tolerance applies to any other violation, and as we wrote this morning, cameras will soon be used to catch drivers doing everything from blocking the box to cutting off pedestrians in a crosswalk.