Lightfoot appears to threaten veto if City Council raises speed limit for speed cameras

CHICAGO - On Monday, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot appeared to threaten a veto if the City Council approves rule changes to City Hall's automated speeding ticket cameras.

"I am not gonna stand idly by and allow the City Council to do something I know will be detrimental," Lightfoot said.

A showdown vote is expected this week.

"It makes no sense for us to be increasing the speeds around parks and schools when we know what the horrific consequences are," Lightfoot said.

The automated cameras send out $35 tickets to any motorist going six miles or more per hour above the posted speed limit, a practice that 9th Ward Alderman Tony Beale is urging the City Council to end at the Wednesday meeting.

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Beale is a sponsor of a measure to raise the threshold for tickets to 10 miles per hour above the speed limit.

"The people need relief here in the city of Chicago. So we cannot continue to go down this road with all these fines and fees, and every time a person accidentally goes six miles per hour over the speed limit, we're hitting them with a $35 ticket? It's preposterous," Beale said.

Beale says the city collected $24 million in such tickets from January through June. After insisting that revenue was not an issue, the mayor now says it's a key reason she wants to keep the fines in place for motorists going six miles an hour over the limit — a threshold for tickets that critics say is very rare across the country.