Automated Speed Enforcement Launches In Mendota Heights This Summer

If you’ve got a lead foot behind the wheel, you’ll want to pay attention: Minnesota has given the green light to speed cameras, and they could start snapping photos of speeding drivers in the North Star State later this summer.

Minnesota has never had automated speed enforcement systems

There are just some things that other states have that we've never had here in Minnesota. Like tolls on highways and interstates (though the Minnesota Department of Transportation apparently DID once consider such a thing a few years ago.) Or those automated traffic cameras that catch you running a red light or speeding and take a picture, allowing the state to then mail you a ticket.

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Have you ever gotten a ticket from an automated camera? We once got a bill in the mail after we drove across the Golden Gate Bridge out in San Francisco. California took out the toll booths on that stretch of Highway-101 (to keep traffic flowing, I'm guessing) and now simply takes a picture of your license plate as you drive by and then mails you a bill that gives you a certain amount of time to pay online-- or they then mail you a ticket, too.

But automated speed cameras are coming to Minnesota-- and soon

Thanks to a bill passed by the Minnesota Legislature in 2024 (that would be Minnesota Statute 169.147 in case you're curious), a speed camera pilot program was legalized here in the Bold North. And now, we're just weeks away from those automated cameras being installed and ready to nab unsuspecting speeders!

The Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) has the details:

Minnesota’s Traffic Safety Camera System Pilot Project legislation authorizes MnDOT and the cities of Minneapolis and Mendota Heights to use traffic safety cameras to provide for education and enforcement of speeding violations, traffic-control signal violations, or both.

MnDOT says that pilot program is authorized to run from Aug. 1, 2025, to July 31, 2029, and that it will be rolling out several cameras in four different construction zones later this fall.

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Meanwhile, Minneapolis plans to roll out several intersections with those cameras on them later this fall as well, but Mendota Heights says it will be installing its cameras even earlier, before the kids head back to school this autumn, MnDOT said.

Speed cameras are coming to the southeast metro yet this summer

According to this Patch story, Mendota Heights will be ready to turn on their new automated speed cameras, though it didn't say how many, as of August 1st. The story said the cameras will use 'radar and imaging technology,' and that 'the system will capture license plates, not drivers, and issue citations by mail.'

This Fox 9-TV story said that the Mendota Heights system will give out warnings the first time cameras catch a driver at more than 10 mph above the speed limit. After that, fines will be $40 per ticket and $80 if you’re caught driving over 20 mph faster than the limit-- but they won't appear on your driving record.