As Tempe faces a potential $13 million cut to the police department in the coming fiscal year, the city’s photo radar cameras remain important assets, police officials said.

Since beginning operation in December 2007, the traffic cameras at South Rural Road and East University Drive caused a 17 percent decrease in traffic violations, according to the most recent Tempe Police report on speed cameras. The cameras at South Priest and West University drives caused a 5 percent decrease in violations.

“It’s a force multiplier,” said Sgt. Steven Carbajal, spokesman for the Tempe Police Department. “It allows us to be in places where officers cannot be. ... If there is a photo enforcement camera there, it frees our officers to respond to crimes more quickly and take proactive crime prevention measures.”

A spokeswoman for Redflex Traffic Systems, the provider of Tempe’s traffic cameras, said its technology contributes significantly to public safety.

In October, the Arizona Department of Public Safety reported that fatal collisions decreased by 19.2 percent within the first nine months of the cameras’ installations.

“Tempe is ... densely populated with students,” Redflex spokeswoman Shoba Vaitheeswaran said. “There are many people walking on the sidewalks, riding bikes. Those cameras are helping reduce fatalities.”

Traffic cameras are unpopular among most Arizona residents, but their use has become more frequent in recent years.

PhotoRadarScam.com, an Arizona-based Web site, is an opponent of traffic cameras and often criticizes their effectiveness, arguing the machines are incapable of judging whether the violations are enforceable or not.

Vaitheeswaran said the company’s technology and verification process allows it the necessary diligence to enforce violations.

“[The evidence] has to hold up in a court,” she said. “We take ... the credibility of our technology very seriously.”

A Tempe police officer reviews the violations once they go through Redflex’s own rigid verification process, she said. The officer then decides whether the violation is viable, at which point Redflex issues the citation.

“Not everyone who drives by a camera is eligible to get a ticket,” said Ryan Denke, creator of PhotoRadarScam.com. He cited corporate vehicles, undocumented immigrants and vehicles without license plates as examples. “[It’s not fair that] I can get a ticket but the guy next to me can’t.”

Denke said the cameras are more of a fundraiser than a safety precaution.

“The only thing they are effective at is raising revenue,” he said.

Still, a recent audit conducted by DPS found that only 38 percent of motorists caught by cameras have paid the notices, and that the program has only generated $37 million of the projected $90 million it was proposed to raise in its first year.

But the audit also reported that more studies must be conducted to determine photo enforcement’s impact on safety.

Sgt. Carbajal’s advice on the matter was simple:

“If you don’t want to have any contacts with the law ... don’t break the law.”

Reach the reporter at joseph.schmidt@asu.edu