Denver drivers can expect a lot more speeding tickets soon, as the city moves to deploy fully automated speed cameras that need no officer standing by to operate. City transportation officials say the new cameras, combined with expanded police patrols and a parking fee overhaul, are projected to pull in millions of additional dollars for Denver's budget next year.
According to Denverite, Denver transportation spokesperson Nancy Kuhn said the city plans to begin using mobile and stationary automated cameras in the first quarter of 2027. Denver currently relies on human-operated vans that issue photo-radar tickets, and the city will continue using those speed-enforcement vans through the Denver Police Department even as the automated system comes online, the outlet reports.
The push comes against a grim backdrop. Denver recorded 93 traffic fatalities in 2025, one of the city's deadliest years on record and up from 80 the year before, according to Axios. Pedestrian deaths alone rose 35% over that span, climbing to 35 fatalities and accounting for more than a third of all road deaths in the city, per Denver's own Vision Zero implementation data.
A Rollout That Was Supposed to Happen Last Year
Denver had actually planned to grow its photo-radar revenue back in 2025, but the expansion never materialized, the article notes. Mayor Mike Johnston told city council that the transportation and police departments had disputed who was responsible for getting the rollout done, according to Denverite's reporting — a bureaucratic tangle that's now being untangled as the city determines exactly how many cameras it will ultimately deploy.
Unlike automated license-plate readers, which document every passing plate, the speed-enforcement technology at the center of this expansion only photographs a plate when a vehicle is actually speeding. City officials say that distinction matters, framing the cameras as a narrowly targeted tool rather than blanket surveillance. The technology is linked to reductions in crashes and deaths and allows Denver to ticket speeders around the clock, the outlet reports.
Fiscal Stakes Behind the Safety Pitch
Money is clearly part of the equation. Projected 2027 General Fund revenue is $1.684 billion, according to Colorado Politics. Denverite reports Johnston's proposed budget counts on $3.1 million in net additional revenue from stepped-up Denver Police traffic enforcement and expanded automated camera citations. Denverite similarly reports the mayor is counting on roughly $3 million more from parking meters and fines, separate from the camera revenue, as part of the draft 2027 budget.
Parking changes make up a big chunk of that math. The city will expand the hours parking meters are in effect and let drivers buy three-hour blocks instead of two-hour blocks — changes expected to generate nearly $1.2 million, per Denverite's reporting. Denver also plans to raise the fee for bagging a parking meter, projected to bring in another $1 million, while increased enforcement and fewer dismissals could add about $883,000 more in fines, alongside an expected 3.4% jump in parking fines overall, the outlet reports. Colorado Politics separately detailed the fee hike, noting the cost to bag a No Parking meter would double from $25 to $50.
Cameras Instead of Traffic Stops
The shift toward automated enforcement follows years of declining in-person traffic stops. Denver Police traffic stops fell nearly 50% in the four months after a 2024 policy change, compared with the four months before it, according to Police1. Denverite reports that Denver Police have issued fewer tickets for lower-level violations in recent years, with Rick Kyle saying in 2024 that officers have become more judicious about making low-level stops.
Denverite reports that Denver Streets Partnership's Jill Locantore has criticized the city's slow rollout of speed cameras and called for Denver to lean more heavily on automated enforcement. She argued automated systems avoid the searches and potentially violent interactions that can come with police stops, and said fully automated speed cameras can operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year without an officer present. Locantore also said she wants ticketing revenue reinvested into traffic-calming infrastructure, and mobility advocates broadly said Johnston should push the changes even further, the outlet reports.
Denver mayoral spokesperson Jon Ewing pushed back on the idea that cameras and officers are an either-or proposition, telling Denverite that photo-radar enforcement and traffic patrolling are not mutually exclusive. He said speed cameras encourage drivers to slow down in dangerous areas, but argued the city still needs officers to catch drivers speeding at the highest rates. Despite the earlier delays, Denver is already doing both: speed-camera enforcement and police traffic patrols, according to the outlet.
That dual approach shows up in the numbers. In-person enforcement rebounded sharply in early 2026, with officers issuing 13,998 traffic tickets through mid-March, compared with 6,346 over the same stretch in 2025, according to The Denver Gazette.
What Colorado Law Allows
Denver's move is made possible by Senate Bill 23-200, signed into law in 2023, which gave municipalities expanded authority to set up Automated Vehicle Identification System corridors on arterial and collector streets without requiring an officer on scene, according to Mandelaris Law LLC. State law caps standard automated speed fines at $40, doubling to $80 in school zones, and requires a 30-day website notification period plus a 30-day warning period before any fine collection can begin, the firm notes.
Colorado lawmakers are still debating how far to push the technology. SB 26-152 proposed lowering the statewide speed camera ticketing threshold from 10 mph over the limit down to just 6 mph over and had a committee hearing in May, according to KOSI 101.1. Nearby Longmont offers a preview of what aggressive camera enforcement can look like in practice: the city issued more than 16,000 automated speed and red-light citations since January, as Hoodline previously reported.
