If you have a lead foot behind the wheel, you could come home to a surprise.

Toledo police can now nab speeders from the comfort of their own patrol cars without even chasing them down.

Toledo City Council voted 8-3 Tuesday to approve legislation clearing the way for police officers to use controversial, hand-held radar speed devices with cameras that automatically record license plate information of vehicles that exceed posted speed limits.

Councilmen Tyrone Riley, Steven Steel, and Cecelia Adams voted no. Councilman Larry Sykes was not present.

“I thought there would be more notice provisions included in it rather than a use-wherever and use-whenever approach,” said Mr. Steel, a Democrat and the council president. 

“One reason the stationary cameras are effective is because people know they are there.”

The vote amended the Toledo Municipal Code to include civil penalties for citations from the devices. A separate vote, also 8-3, approved a new contract with Redflex Traffic Systems, the Arizona-based firm that maintains the city’s camera system and keeps a percentage of the fines.

Citations derived from the devices cost violators $120, with the city receiving $100 of that after the first 50 issued from each device. The city will keep $90.25 of the fine obtained from the first 50 tickets of each device.

That $100 is a greater percentage of fine money than from stationary cameras mounted at intersections and one along the Anthony Wayne Trail. The city keeps $90.25 from all fines obtained from those cameras.

Citations will be mailed to motorists at their homes. However, there will be no points attached to the driver’s licenses of those cited.

The city has to pay Redflex $500 per hand-held device — each month — to get the greater percentage of fines, police Chief George Kral said.

Police will start using the devices March 1. The city has two and plans to obtain two more, Chief Kral said.

Councilman Tom Waniewski, a Republican, said the devices are useful tools for officers.

“They have many tools, and this is just one more,” he said. “I wish we could lease out a few to our Block Watch captains and they could catch the speeders down Rushland Avenue.”

Toledo’s proposed 2016 general-fund budget includes $800,000 in revenue from speeders by using the devices.

Youngstown is the only other major city in Ohio with a similar program.

Contact Ignazio Messina at: imessina@theblade.com or 419-724-6171 or on Twitter @IgnazioMessina.

First Published February 17, 2016, 5:00 a.m.