Less than a week after Indiana Attorney General Steve Carter said Hammond was not within its rights to use cameras to catch motorists running red lights, the mayors of Lafayette and West Lafayette say they'll lobby state legislators to pass a law that permits their use.

Both cities have installed cameras at intersections to research how many drivers they might catch. Passing a state law authorizing the cameras for traffic enforcement appears the only option left for local officials who want to use that technology.

Carter issued his opinion Friday, saying the Legislature must create a law before municipalities can use the cameras to catch drivers who run red lights.

"It's the opinion of the attorney general's office that the red light cameras are not something that can be done by local units of government," Carter said Friday at the Merrillville Municipal Center.

"State government has moved into the area of regulating moving traffic violations. They have not specifically authorized local units to do that," he said. "So an ordinance, such as the one passed in Hammond that says red light cameras are to be used to catch moving violators, in our opinion, is not legal under Indiana law."

In June, the Hammond City Council gave the green light to the use of cameras to catch motorists running red lights. At the time, it was unclear whether state legislation was needed for Hammond to move forward.

The ordinance would have imposed a $100 fine on offenders, and the violation would not have counted as points against their license.

The city intended to treat the offense as an infraction like a parking ticket, not a moving violation.

Hammond was not alone in its interest in installing the cameras, but it was the first community to go so far as to enact an ordinance.

That interest now extends to Lafayette Mayor Tony Roswarski, who said he'd like to talk to legislators about passing such a law.

"I'm certainly going to talk to them about re-looking at that or at least trying some pilot program," Roswarski said.

Lafayette set up a test camera at an intersection for a 24-hour period on May 8-9 to get a sense of the extent of the problem.

The camera recorded traffic traveling along a main thoroughfare, coming from the city's downtown and heading toward a mall. Of the 8,459 vehicles observed, 135 were recorded in some type of red light violation.

That number is significant, considering that city police issued a total of 368 tickets to people running red lights between January 2007 through May 1.