Team ONUZach F., Tyler F., Natalie E., Derick E.

The village of Schaumburg Illinois installed a camera at Woodfield Mall last November to film cars that were running red lights, using the footage to issue traffic citations.

In just 3 months the town issued $1 million in fines

This caused an eruption of anger among the mall visitors many of which threatened to stop shopping at the mall unless the camera was turned off.

The town stopped monitoring right turns at that intersection in January.

These traffic cameras are becoming increasingly popular across the country.

New technology can catch speeders on the highway and using infrared cameras can read the license plate of offenders to issue citations.

These cameras measure speed and take pictures of license plates.

The city can then view the images and mail tickets to offending drivers.

Many drivers feel they are being trapped and are using interesting methods to get around these new devices.

Drivers are fighting back with pick axes, camera-blocking Santa Clauses, and spraying license plates with photo-blurring chemicals.

Cities say that they improve safety by slowing down speedy drivers.

They also bring in revenue through tickets. Also, the companies who sell cameras

generate about $5000 per camera each month. The cameras are city funded, and tax payers defray the cost. Fair?

In Arizona, Photoradarscam.com has been set up to protest the cameras.

The creator, Ryan Denke, opposes. "We're putting law enforcement in the hands of third parties.“

Protests against cameras have risen in tandem with the number installed.

In the U.S., it is estimated that there are about 3000 of the red-light and speed cameras set up, up 500 from last year.

At the end of last year, about 345 jurisdictions were using the cameras.

Arizona-based American Traffic Solutions Inc., recently reported it had installed its 1,000th camera, with 500 more under contract in 140 cities and towns.

City leaders say that traffic citations are for public safety and that the revenue is just a byproduct, but a study a study done in last month’s Journal Law and Economics concluded that traffic citations are governments means of revenue.

The authors, Thomas Garrett of the St. Louis Fed and Gary Wagner of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, studied 14 years of traffic-ticket data from 96 counties in North Carolina. They found that when local-government revenue declines, police issue more tickets in the following year. Officials at the North Carolina Association of Chiefs of Police didn't respond to requests for comment.

Cameras on highways to catch speeders are common in Europe but are just getting started in the US.

State Police have already put cameras on highways in Arizona, and in Phoenix, with $90 million in fines to help balance out the budget.

Arizona legislature is discussing a bill to remove the cameras.

These cameras have issued 200,000 violation notices since September.

Newly developed products to help mask license plates from cameras are already illegal in certain states.

Multiple websites are devoted to slipping past cameras.

Safety benefit studies on the cameras are inconclusive.