Two speed cameras perched on the steep stretch of Kipling Street in Wheat Ridge have issued nearly 17,000 speeding tickets in just two months, with drivers clocked averaging more than 50 mph through a 40-mph zone. The numbers, drawn from police records, work out to more than 270 tickets a day since the cameras went live on the hill between 32nd and 38th avenues.
According to 9News, the northbound downhill camera alone issued 8,879 citations in August and another 8,100 in September, while the southbound uphill camera issued 628 tickets in August and 702 in September. The downhill camera recorded an average speed of 53 mph, and the uphill camera averaged 54 mph, on a hill where the speed limit holds steady at 40 mph throughout. Alex Rose, public information officer for the Wheat Ridge Police Department, told the station that drivers can gain speed quickly coming down the hill, and joked that they can always use their brakes going downhill.
Rose said drivers must be traveling at least 11 mph over the limit to trigger either camera, and that some drivers have complained the steep grade makes it too easy to get caught. Before July ended, the department had actually been issuing warnings rather than citations on the corridor — the northbound camera logged 11,690 warnings and the southbound camera logged 733 in July alone, giving drivers a grace period before enforcement began in earnest.
A Citywide Program Already Showing Results
The Kipling Street cameras are part of a broader rollout that began in April 2025, when the Wheat Ridge Police Department first switched on automated speed cameras across the city, according to the City of Wheat Ridge. The city says it is expanding the program further in 2026, with planned camera locations at West 32nd Avenue and Independence Court near Wheat Ridge High School and along Kipling Street between 32nd and 34th avenues.
The city's camera near the high school offers an early look at what sustained enforcement can do: it issued roughly 4,183 tickets in June 2025, a total that had fallen to about 1,133 by May of the following year, a drop the city's Crash and Traffic Team and denver7.com both describe as a substantial reduction in citations at that location. Rose said the department expects a similar pattern to play out on Kipling Street, with citations expected to fall significantly over six months to a year as drivers learn the cameras are there and adjust their speed.
Citywide, the program had generated 24,304 citations as of a recent count, which Rose said helped produce a significant reduction in excessive speeding in the enforced areas, per ngazette.com. The outlet also reported that speeding citations fell by roughly 30% when the program's first three months were compared with the three months that followed — a trend separately echoed by denver7.com, which reported a 30% drop in mailed violation notices across August, September and October compared with the program's early months.
How the Fines and Oversight Work
Every speed camera citation carries a $40 fine, is mailed to the vehicle's registered owner, and adds no points to that driver's license, per the city's Crash and Traffic Team page. The city has described the citations as civil infractions rather than criminal violations, with each one reviewed and approved by a police officer before it goes out in the mail. Rose said the cameras are meant to reduce speeding rather than generate revenue, framing the citation terms as a deterrent rather than a moneymaker.
That said, the program has brought real money into city coffers. The ngazette.com report found the effort had generated roughly $208,000 for Wheat Ridge's general fund as of January, even after the city's vendor, Altumint, retains its cut. Under a five-year service agreement the city council approved on October 28, 2024, with annual renewals afterward, Altumint keeps about 33% of fine revenue, or roughly $15 out of every $40 citation, according to the same report.
More Cameras, and the City's First Red-Light Camera, on the Way
Wheat Ridge currently runs four speed-camera setups — two permanent cameras and two mobile trailers — and denver7.com reports police plan to keep relocating the mobile units in response to community complaints about speeding. The department has identified Kipling Street and Wadsworth Boulevard as designated speed corridors where it can deploy cameras, including mobile Dragon-Eye units, within its jurisdiction, the city's traffic team page confirms.
Police are also planning the city's first red-light cameras, at 44th Avenue and Kipling Street and at 32nd Avenue and Wadsworth Boulevard, with red-light violations set to carry a $75 fine, according to the city. Wheat Ridge is also considering adding another speed camera on Wadsworth Boulevard. Denver7 reported that investigators found speed was a factor in a crash involving serious bodily injury near West 38th Avenue and Kipling Street, a detail police cited as police continue building the case for expanded enforcement along the corridor.
Wheat Ridge previously studied similar automated-enforcement programs run by Denver, Aurora, Boulder and Morrison before launching its own, according to coloradocommunitymedia.com. Police say they've already seen drivers slow down in other camera-equipped areas of the city and expect that pattern to hold on Kipling Street as the hill's two cameras keep watch around the clock.
