HAMMOND | The city is looking at installing an automatic traffic enforcement system to catch motorists running red lights.

An ordinance proposing the system was introduced May 12, and the City Council could choose to act on the issue when it meets Monday.

If adopted, the system likely would be the first in the state though several other communities, including Lafayette, recently have indicated interest.

When the system is triggered, a digital camera captures the car in the midst of the intersection and also the car's rear license plate.

Within 90 days, a citation carrying a $100 penalty will arrive in the mail.

Sgt. Pat Vicari of the Police Department's Traffic Division said he first saw the system at work while stationed with the military in Germany.

More recently Vicari said he was offered a presentation of a system operated by SafeSpeed, a Chicago-based company.

Vicari checked the city's crash database and identified six dangerous intersections for a test traffic study: 169th Street and Kennedy Avenue, 173rd Street and Kennedy Avenue, 165th Street and Hohman Avenue, 165th Street and Columbia Avenue, Gostlin Street and Hohman Avenue, and 169th Street and Grand Avenue.

SafeSpeed Managing Director Charles Freda said video of the test study may be shown during a presentation scheduled during a City Council committee meeting at 6 p.m. Monday. The committee meeting is open to the public and will be followed by the council's regular meeting at 8 p.m.

Freda said his company conducts the initial review of the photographs, but the Police Department has the final say about issuing a citation.

"We make sure it was in fact an infraction," he said.

Freda said there is no cost to the taxpayer as the company is paid through a fee structure based on revenues brought in by the citations.

Beginning with New York, the system started surfacing only in the late 1990s, according to Russ Rader, spokesman for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a nonprofit funded by the insurance industry looking for ways to reduce crashes.

"Interest has grown since research has shown they're extremely effective," he said. About 350 communities nationwide now use red light cameras, according to Rader.

Rader said critics argue the system is used more to increase local government revenues than to increase public safety. Rader, however, argues studies show revenues drop off as the behavior is deterred.

"In the long run, these are not major moneymakers," he said.