A bill moving toward passage in the General Assembly’s lame-duck session would essentially ban the use of red-light and speed-enforcement cameras in Ohio unless a police officer is present. The measure would place unrealistic economic constraints on local governments that use the devices to promote traffic safety, and should not become law.

Since 2002, the first full year these cameras were used in Toledo, statistics show that they have made streets safer and reduced traffic violations and deaths. Yet despite this display of effectiveness, the state Senate voted this month to prohibit the issuance of citations to motorists for violations caught by cameras unless a police officer is on the scene to witness the infraction and write a ticket.

Last year, the state House passed an even more stringent ban on traffic cameras. Lawmakers in both chambers need to pump their brakes.

Though unpopular among lawbreaking motorists, the cameras — with a few notorious exceptions, in which they have been used as revenue-raising devices — are valuable law-enforcement tools. They are a cost-effective way to promote public safety. The Traffic Safety Coalition estimates Toledo would have to spend about $14.5 million a year to station a police officer 24 hours a day at all city intersections that now have cameras.

Toledo and other municipalities can’t afford such a wasteful duplication of resources. The traffic-enforcement cameras work, even when no one is watching, in part because they act as a deterrent to drivers who become more aware and cautious about their actions on the road.

Toledo Mayor D. Michael Collins’ budget proposal for 2015 estimates collection of $3.2 million in new and past-due fines from the cameras. But there’s little evidence that Ohio’s cash-strapped municipalities are using the cameras primarily to bolster revenue. State lawmakers can proscribe speed traps without penalizing police departments, including Toledo’s, that use the cameras responsibly.

The end of red-light and speed-enforcement cameras would endanger the safety and lives of Ohio motorists. The cameras reduce the number of accidents and fatalities at the intersections where they are placed.

This important public safety tool should not be eliminated. Last-minute attempts by lawmakers to outlaw camera programs statewide deserve to be met with a stop sign.

First Published November 29, 2014, 5:00 a.m.