On July 9, the Chicago City Council approved installing cameras at 10 intersections in an effort to catch drivers who run red lights.

“Over 800 deaths and 250,000 injuries occur each year in the U.S. from people running traffic signals,” said Leslie Blakey, executive director of the National Campaign to Stop Red Light Running.

Blakey said after the cameras were installed in New York City, there was a 34 percent reduction in red-light violations.

“That is a clear message that red-light cameras save lives and increase traffic safety,” Blakey said.

The cameras take pictures of an intersection after the light has turned red. Snapshot of the offending vehicles’ license plates are then sent to the violator with a ticket for the appropriate fine.

The ticket amounts are set by city ordinances or state laws. In Chicago, the fine is $90.

“I think that having cameras on stoplights would certainly help alleviate the problem of people running though intersections at a red light,” DeKalb Police Chief Bill Feithen said.

According to Feithen, the DeKalb Police Department had 463 arrests for traffic-signal violations last year.

“I wouldn’t say that we wouldn’t use them in future, but I just don’t see us using them for stop-light violations,” Feithen said. “If we used cameras like that, it would be more for surveillance purposes.”

Feithen said cameras would be valuable for problems like a neighborhood suspected of heavy drug dealing. The police could use cameras for undercover surveillance.

“There’s always a concern with technology like this – of displacing the problem,” Feithen said. “But, if it’s just being used for stop lights, then I’m sure it will lessen accidents and offenses.”

Currently, there are no plans to equip intersections in DeKalb with the red-light cameras, but that doesn’t mean that citizens aren’t being watched. Several DeKalb police cars have cameras installed in the dashboard, equipped to record the police officers’ daily stops for various offenses.