Chesapeake, VA Mobility & Curb Rules: Red-Light Cameras (2026)

Sec. 74-193(a) makes "the operator of a vehicle...liable for a monetary penalty imposed pursuant to this section if such vehicle is found, as evidenced by information obtained from a traffic light signal violation monitoring system, to have failed to comply with a traffic light signal." Proof comes from a sworn police certificate based on photographs, microphotographs, videotape or other recorded images; the system must capture at least one image of the vehicle before it enters the intersection illegally and one after, tied to violations of Virginia Code §§ 46.2-833, 46.2-835 or 46.2-836.

Liability runs first to the registered owner, lessee or renter, but that presumption is rebuttable: the owner can defeat it by filing a sworn affidavit with the general district court clerk, testifying in open court that someone else was driving, or producing a police report showing the vehicle was reported stolen before the violation. A summons can be mailed rather than served in person, and every mailed summons must give the recipient at least 60 business days to inspect the recorded images before the case proceeds.

Subsection (e) makes clear the penalty is civil, not a driving conviction: it "shall not be deemed a conviction as an operator and shall not be made part of the operating record," and it cannot be used to raise insurance rates. The fine itself is capped by reference to Virginia Code § 15.2-968.1 rather than set as a flat local amount. The city must also post conspicuous warning signs within 500 feet of the intersection approach at every monitored location, and there is a rebuttable presumption those signs were in place at the time of the violation. Chesapeake's code contains no separate school-zone speed camera ordinance; Sec. 74-193 addresses red light signal enforcement only, and a different section, Sec. 74-196, covers video cameras mounted on school buses to catch drivers who illegally pass a stopped bus.