Consider this. A police officer has to determine that your vehicle is going fast enough to warrant pursuit. Then, he has to enter traffic that is generally moving faster than the speed limit. Next, he has to get his speed up to 20 or more mph above what you're going, move through and around a sea of inattentive motorists, pick a location for the traffic stop and finally pull you over. Doing all this safely is challenging.

For the officer, there's also the danger posed by impaired drivers drifting out of their lanes and into the officer. Furthermore, the officer is out of service for the duration of the citation-writing process. This means there's one less officer to identify drunken or reckless drivers.

Are more police officers needed? Yes. But traffic enforcement is just one of their many crucial public-safety tasks. It would take dozens of officers to effectively deter and detect speeders and red-light runners at a single location, a job easily handled by a photo-enforcement system.

The same is true on our highways. If the Arizona Department of Public Safety put 100 more patrol officers on the highways immediately, spread them across the state and divided them among established shifts, the difference they would make would be minor compared with 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week photo enforcement on particularly dangerous stretches of highway.

Contrary to what critics say, photo enforcement is no cash cow for the cities or their vendors. It does, however, provide resources for a number of important programs. When citations are issued, whether by hand or machine, the state receives 40 percent of the fine.

This revenue is used to fund the Spinal and Head Injury Trust Fund, Emergency Medical Services Operating Fund and Peace Officers Training Fund. It is also allocated to the Victim's Rights Implementation Fund, Victim Compensation Fund, Juvenile Crime Reduction Program, substance-abuse prevention and treatment programs and various other state funds.

Despite photo enforcement's many benefits and proven effectiveness, some legislators persist in efforts to take this valuable tool away from law-enforcement professionals. Please don't let them do it.

I urge those of you who are concerned about your safety and the safety of your family and friends to rally behind photo enforcement. Tell your legislators where you stand on this important issue. Thank you.

John D. Wintersteen has been the chief of police of the town of Paradise Valley for the past 11 years.