Almost a year after the Santa Fe City Council approved using cameras at intersections to catch red-light runners, the city is still waiting on state Transportation Commission approval to install them.

"Who's stalling this program?" Councilor Ronald Trujillo, the program's chief advocate, asked at Tuesday's meeting of the city Public Safety Committee.

Police Capt. Anthony Robbin said the state commission originally planned to hear the matter this month, but recently delayed it until March.

"When I tried to call and get information, I was told that suddenly they were looking at legislation issues that might come up" regarding indemnification of the city, he said.

Trujillo said Las Cruces authorized red-light cameras months after Santa Fe did, yet it already has started using them, while Santa Fe is months away.

Outside the hearing room, Robbin said Santa Fe needed the special state permission because the four intersections where cameras are to be installed are along state highways.

Redflex Traffic Systems, the Phoenix firm that has been hired to run Santa Fe's program, estimates it will take 30 days to install the cameras at the four Cerrillos Road intersections — at St. Francis Drive, St. Michael's Drive, Richards Avenue and Zafarano Drive.

Robbin said the cameras could be retrofitted with license plate scanners that can read plate numbers and report to the police when they spot a car belonging to someone who is wanted for a crime. The cameras also could help stop people from pulling ahead of the stopping point for traffic at Rail Runner train crossings, he said.

Some parts of the country have seen a backlash against red-light cameras. Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, West Virginia and Wisconsin have banned them. Voters in Chillicothe and Heath, Ohio, and College Station, Texas, recently passed referendums against the cameras, and 1,000 motorists in south Florida have joined a lawsuit seeking to have such cameras declared unconstitutional. Last May, Farmington's City Council narrowly voted against joining Santa Fe, Las Cruces and Albuquerque in using red-light cameras.

But a recent poll of Santa Fe voters conducted for The New Mexican found most favored the devices. Of 400 registered voters asked about the city's plan to install the cameras, 57 percent approved, 38 percent disapproved and 5 percent were unsure.

On Tuesday, Robbin touted the success of Santa Fe's so-called "speed van" or "photo enforcement vehicle" — a 2008 Ford Escape that uses radar to detect speeding vehicles, photographs their license plates and sends speeding tickets to the registered owners.

He said that between Oct. 15, when the city began using the vehicle, and Dec. 1, 1,246 warning tickets were issued, and since Dec. 1, 1,746 speeding citations have been issued, for total fines of about $170,000.

But Robbin said even when no tickets are issued, just the placement of the vehicle slows down traffic.

Contact Tom Sharpe at 986-3080 or tsharpe@sfnewmexican.com.