YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - Youngstown police have completed the first week of using new speed enforcement traffic cameras.

The laser speed gun is the same, but now it's connected to a computer tablet that records the time, date, speed and photo of the vehicle and it's license plate.

"You see which cars are moving quicker than the average flow of traffic and those are the ones you focus on," said Officer Brian Booksing of the Youngstown Traffic Unit.

On Friday, Booksing was monitoring traffic on Interstate-680 near Market Street.

"That guy was at 65 in a 50 mph zone," Booksing said as a white van zipped past his location.

The offender will then receive a citation through the mail from a company called Optotraffic. Earlier uses of unmanned traffic cameras, including the city of Girard, were banned after challenges over due process, that the accuser was a machine.

Attorney Dave Betras says this new system gets around that question.

"Now you have an officer who is also going to observe what the camera is observing, so if someone needs to come into court to testify as to what they saw they have the police officer," Betras said.

Offenders can appeal the citation, which is a civil offense, not criminal, and no points are added to your drivers license. Attorney Betras questions that process as being counter productive.

"You have a habitual speeder who's not getting points on his license, who's not getting his license suspended because of his habitual speeding, so you're making the roads less safe," said Betras.

On the other hand, police believe the system will help modify behavior, reduce speeding, and make roads safer. All of the equipment is provided by Optotraffic, police only have to forward the recorded data to the company and then collect a percentage of the fines.

Attorney Betras calls it nothing more than a money grab.

"Its not a safety issue, it's a money issue, they need the money so they've found a way to raise money, and these traffic cam places are making millions of dollars," Betras said.

For the first thirty days that the new system is place, police say all citations will only be warnings with no fines assessed.