Louisiana Traffic Camera Ticket Laws: School Zones, Red Light Cameras & the 2025 Rewrite

Louisiana does not run a single statewide camera-ticket program. Speed and red light cameras operate under local ordinances in cities and parishes, but a 2025 rewrite of state law, Act 107, sharply narrowed what those ordinances can do. Since August 1, 2025, an automated speed device outside a DOTD work zone can operate only in a lawfully posted school zone, and New Orleans has already shut its non-school-zone cameras off for good.

Louisiana Runs on Local Ordinances, Not a State Program

Louisiana has no statute that creates a statewide camera-enforcement program the way some states do. Instead, cities and parishes adopt their own ordinances to run red light and speed camera systems, and state law functions as a set of guardrails on what those local programs can do rather than a grant of authority.

Those guardrails, codified mainly at La. R.S. 32:43 through 32:49, have gotten significantly tighter in the past two years. The interstate ban is the oldest piece of the framework: R.S. 32:43(A)(1), enacted by Acts 2014, No. 95 (effective May 16, 2014), has barred local municipal and parish authorities from using automated speed enforcement devices to regulate traffic on interstate roadways within their corporate or territorial limits for more than a decade. A 2024 law (Act 722) amended that same paragraph to add that no equipment off a state or local authority right-of-way may use electronic speed enforcement devices, and enacted the unmanned-device school-zone signage rule now folded into R.S. 32:43(A)(3). A separate 2024 law (Act 103, effective May 21, 2024) created R.S. 32:46, which restricts when electronic enforcement devices may operate at all. A 2025 law (Act 107, effective August 1, 2025) went further and rewrote the speed-camera rules almost entirely.

The 2025 Rewrite: Act 107 Confines Speed Cameras to School Zones

Act 107 (SB 99 of the 2025 session) is the single most important fact on this page, and it is a genuine narrowing, not a modernization. Before the rewrite, local speed-camera ordinances had more room to operate. After it, R.S. 32:43(A)(3) restricts automated speed enforcement devices and mobile speed cameras to «school zones lawfully posted in accordance with R.S. 32:47.» The only carve-out for a broader location is R.S. 32:43(A)(2)'s DOTD construction-zone exception, which applies where DOTD or its own contractor is working and workers are present in the zone, and which is explicitly not available to local authorities running their own programs.

Act 107 did more than relocate the cameras. It also:

• Repealed the red light camera image, penalty, and definition subsections at R.S. 32:44(B) and (C), leaving only the signage requirement in that section.
• Added official malfeasance exposure for officials who violate the new rules, under R.S. 14:134(A)(2).
• Required that administrative hearings and judicial review of a camera citation be provided at no cost to the vehicle's owner.
• Required school-zone speed citations to include a way to access the device's certification record without a fee, whether by pre-paid envelope, QR code, or link.
• Barred municipalities from referring unpaid camera debt to the state's Office of Debt Recovery within the Department of Revenue.
• Added new school-zone signage and pavement-striping requirements, including «Entering School Zone» pavement lettering.
• Barred the assessment of criminal fines or fees from automated speed devices or mobile speed cameras.

There is also a narrow population carve-out added in 2025, at R.S. 32:43(A)(4), for a municipality with a population between 15,000 and 16,000 in a parish of 70,000 to 90,000 residents. Which specific municipality that describes was not confirmed from census data this session, so treat it as a narrow statutory exception rather than a general rule.

Red Light Cameras: Reached by Both the 2024 and 2025 Changes

Red light cameras are a different device from speed cameras, but state law did not leave them alone. Act 107 repealed R.S. 32:44(B) and (C), the subsections that had governed the use of red light camera images and the civil and criminal fines, fees, and penalties built on them. What survives in that section is the signage rule at R.S. 32:44(A): local authorities «shall post signs, indicating that a red light camera is present, within five hundred feet of each red light camera.» Act 107 also added statutory definitions covering red light cameras, amended R.S. 32:46(C) and (D), added R.S. 32:48(B)(9) and (10), and amended R.S. 32:49. Two of those sections name red light cameras outright: R.S. 32:48(A) requires an administrative hearing process for citations issued by «automated speed enforcement devices, red light cameras, or mobile speed cameras,» and R.S. 32:49(B) bars referring delinquent citations from those same devices to the Office of Debt Recovery.

Location and timing are not unrestricted either. R.S. 32:46(A) defines «electronic enforcement devices» to mean «automated speed enforcement devices, red light traffic cameras, and mobile speed cameras used for the purpose of regulating and enforcing traffic violations in which citations are issued by mail.» R.S. 32:46(B), added by 2024 Act 103, then provides that local authorities «shall only operate electronic enforcement devices in a school zone on school days during the specified time periods when children are in school,» limited to one hour before and after the start of a school day and one hour before and after its end. On the face of that text, the school-zone and school-hours limits reach red light traffic cameras, not only speed cameras. R.S. 32:46(D)(2) adds that a cooperative endeavor agreement between the municipality and each school governing authority within its boundaries must be in place before automated speed enforcement devices and mobile speed cameras are implemented, and R.S. 32:46(C) exempts one narrowly described small municipality from the entire section.

How far cities are applying R.S. 32:46(B) to their red light programs in practice varies, and the wider framework is being litigated (see the New Orleans section below). If you got a red light camera ticket in Louisiana, check the time and place of the alleged violation against R.S. 32:46(B), check the 500-foot signage requirement at R.S. 32:44(A), and confirm the current status of the local program with the issuing city or parish.

Points, Insurance, and Your Driving Record

Louisiana's clearest reader-protective rule sits at R.S. 32:393(I): «the record of a conviction for a traffic violation which is based solely on evidence from a traffic camera shall not be forwarded to the Department of Public Safety and Corrections and no record of such conviction shall be made part of any person's driving record.» In practice, that means a camera-only conviction carries no points and gives an insurance company nothing to find on your state driving record, because the state record never receives it at all. This is the owner-liability civil-penalty model used by most states with camera programs, and it is the opposite of the driver-liability model some states use, where a camera-generated conviction is treated as an ordinary moving violation.

What Happens If You Don't Pay

Act 107 closed off one of the harsher escalation paths that had existed elsewhere: municipalities can no longer refer unpaid camera debt to the state's Office of Debt Recovery, and the law requires free hearings and judicial review rather than a pay-to-fight process. That said, Louisiana's guardrail statutes do not eliminate local collection entirely. Individual cities and parishes still run their own billing and, in some cases, private collection practices for camera debt, and the specific mechanics (late fees, referral to a collection agency, any effect on vehicle registration) depend on the local program rather than a uniform state rule. Check the notice from the issuing city or parish, and use the fee-free hearing and certification-access rights Act 107 guarantees if you want to contest a citation.

New Orleans Right Now: An Active Lawsuit, Not Just Signage Catch-Up

New Orleans stopped all non-school-zone speed camera enforcement permanently in 2025, in line with Act 107's school-zone confinement, per the city's own July 31, 2025 announcement. But the bigger story is the school-zone cameras, which have been off since the end of the 2024-2025 school year, and the reason has moved well past routine signage and striping compliance. A 2024 state law requires municipalities to split camera-ticket revenue with local school districts and bars ticketing until a revenue-sharing agreement is in place. New Orleans kept issuing tickets while the city and the Orleans Parish School Board negotiated one, and school officials say the cameras generated $1.375 million in net revenue between May 2024 and March 2025, now held in escrow. After a 2025 law made officials who violate the school-zone camera rules chargeable with malfeasance in office, the same R.S. 14:134(A)(2) exposure described above, the city and the school board agreed to a 60/40 revenue split. Attorney General Liz Murrill then ordered New Orleans to refund fines collected before an agreement was in place, and threatened a criminal investigation and malfeasance charges, punishable by up to ten years in prison and a fine of up to $5,000, against city officials. Two weeks later, New Orleans sued the state in the 19th Judicial District Court in Baton Rouge, arguing the traffic-camera laws overstep the city's home-rule authority, that the revenue-sharing mandate is an unconstitutional donation to the schools since the city receives nothing in return, and that the new school-zone signage and pavement-striping requirements (a two-foot yellow «Entering School Zone» stripe in 12-inch white lettering) conflict with federal highway standards. A hearing in that lawsuit is scheduled for September 21, 2026. Red light cameras in New Orleans were not part of that shutdown and remain a separate program, though they are subject to the R.S. 32:46 restrictions described above. This is an active, fast-moving dispute, so confirm current camera status and any court developments directly with the city rather than relying on this page alone.

Information last verified on 2026-08-12. This article has not yet been reviewed by a licensed lawyer.

Related Resources

• Traffic Camera Ticket Laws by State
• Do You Have to Pay a Camera Ticket?
• How to Fight a Camera Ticket
• Mississippi Traffic Camera Ticket Laws
• Can You Get a Speeding Ticket Without Being Pulled Over?
• DUI Laws by State

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Last updated: 2026-08-12.

More Louisiana Laws

• Louisiana Car Accident Laws
• Louisiana Dashcam Laws
• Louisiana DUI Laws

Frequently Asked Questions

Are traffic cameras legal in Louisiana?

There is no single state camera-ticket law. Cities and parishes may run red light and, since 2025, school-zone speed camera programs under their own ordinances, but state law (R.S. 32:43-32:49) sets hard limits on what those ordinances can do.

Can Louisiana speed cameras operate outside school zones?

Not for local programs. 2025 Act 107 confined non-DOTD automated speed devices and mobile speed cameras to lawfully posted school zones. The only exception is a DOTD or DOTD-contractor construction zone with workers present, a state-only track not open to local authorities.

Does New Orleans still run speed cameras?

No, not the school-zone ones. They have been off since the end of the 2024-2025 school year over a revenue-sharing dispute with the Orleans Parish School Board, and the city is now suing the state over the underlying law, with a hearing scheduled for September 21, 2026. Non-school-zone speed cameras were stopped permanently in 2025 under Act 107. Confirm current status with the city before assuming a specific camera is active.

Will a Louisiana camera ticket go on my driving record or raise my insurance?

No. R.S. 32:393(I) keeps a conviction based solely on camera evidence off your Department of Public Safety driving record entirely, so there is nothing for the state or an insurer to see from that conviction alone.

What happens if I don't pay a Louisiana camera ticket?

Act 107 bars municipalities from sending unpaid camera debt to the state's Office of Debt Recovery, and requires free administrative hearings and judicial review. Local collection practices still vary by program, so check the specific city or parish's process.

Are red light cameras affected by the 2025 law change?

Yes. Act 107 repealed R.S. 32:44(B) and (C), the red light camera image and penalty subsections, added statutory definitions covering red light cameras, and amended R.S. 32:46, 32:48 and 32:49, which name red light cameras directly. Separately, R.S. 32:46(B), added by 2024 Act 103, limits operation of «electronic enforcement devices,» defined by R.S. 32:46(A) to include red light traffic cameras, to school zones on school days during set hours. The 500-foot signage requirement at R.S. 32:44(A) still applies.

Can a Louisiana speed camera operate on an interstate?

Not for local programs. R.S. 32:43(A)(1), enacted by Acts 2014, No. 95 (effective May 16, 2014), bars local authorities from using automated speed enforcement devices on interstate roadways within their corporate or territorial limits, and a 2024 amendment (Act 722) added that equipment off a state or local authority right-of-way may not use electronic speed enforcement devices. DOTD's own construction-zone systems are a separate, state-run exception.

Is there a fee to contest a Louisiana camera ticket?

Act 107 requires that the administrative hearing process and judicial review of a camera citation be provided at no cost to the vehicle's owner, and school-zone speed citations must include a way to access the device's certification record without a fee.