Watch it: the speed cameras are here!

A costly shutterbug is coming to a crossroads near you. When speed cameras start clicking in select Baltimore-area intersections Oct. 1, drivers will be subjected to a form of policing that experts say is rooted in behavioral change.

“People eventually will slow down,” says Baltimore City Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke, who represents the 14th District. “No more zoom, zoom, zoom.”

The speed cameras were unveiled in the city this week at the intersection of Walther and Glenmore avenues in Northeast Baltimore near Glenmount Elementary/Middle School. State law specifies that the slender, box-shaped cameras can be placed in school or construction zones. The Glenmount site is one of 51 hotspots designated by city officials for photo-tickets.

In addition, five mobile speed cameras will begin to roam the city next spring.

“They will be very effective,” predicted Clarke, who likened the impact of speed cameras to that of existing red-light cameras. “With the red-light cameras, our revenues have gone down over the years as people have become aware and have stopped at the red lights.”

The state law passed six months ago establishing speed cameras states that drivers caught going 12 mph or more over the speed limit will get a $40 ticket. That ticket will be mailed to the registered driver whose license plate was photographed. Tickets won’t begin to be issued until Halloween; for the first 30 days, cameras will only prompt warnings to go out across the state, officials say.

Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon called “Slowing people down to the speed limit” the reason for the cameras.

That mission will be enforced by the city police department’s traffic enforcement division, which will review all photos taken by the speed cameras to decide whether to send a ticket, said Adrienne Barnes, spokeswoman for the city Department of Transportation.

Signs will be posted near the cameras warning drivers that they are being monitored. The state law limits use of the cameras in a school zone to between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m.

Points against a driver’s record will not be assessed for a ticket issued as a result of the speed cameras, Barnes said. And drivers may protest a ticket in District Court.

The cameras, she added, will be “constantly monitored” for precision by city police officials and Affiliated Computer Services, the Dallas-based contractor that installed the cameras and was bought by Xerox Corp. this week for $6.4 billion.

“We will constantly make sure the technology is working,” Barnes said. “We don’t anticipate any inaccuracies. Before we put up the speed lights, we monitored the intersection at Walther and Glenmore [with a speed data machine] to show us what speed motorists were going along those roads. The posted limit is 30 miles per hour. We found that up to 20 percent of the motorists were traveling 40 miles per hour or better along that strip.”

While many county officials in Maryland have indicated they won’t install speed cameras in their jurisdictions, the devices are to go up in Baltimore and Frederick counties this month. The cameras have been in use in Montgomery County since 2007, where 70 in Gaithersburg, Takoma Park, Chevy Chase Village and Rockville have produced $18 million in new revenues per year.

A report issued Tuesday by the Montgomery County Council stated that after one year of automated speed enforcement, collisions near speed camera sites dropped 28 percent while speeding at or near them decreased 19 percent.

Critics of the speed cameras say they are a ploy for local governments to reap new revenues in a Big Brother-style of video surveillance of motorists.

To that, Barnes said Baltimore projects it will collect $7.1 million in new speeding fines in 2010, an amount she said is expected to decrease as motorists become aware of the cameras and slow down.

The city’s contract calls for Baltimore to receive 65 percent of the revenues from each ticket issued, while ACS, the contractor, will get 35 percent, she said.

Melody Simmons is a freelance writer based in Baltimore.