"I haven't seen nearly as many people running the red lights as they used to," Springfield traffic engineer Earl Newman said. "People seem to be a little more cautious when they're going through the intersection."

One system operates in the southbound lanes of National Avenue at Battlefield Road. Two others operate at the intersection of Campbell Avenue at Battlefield. Each of the three camera systems have one goal.

"We definitely stop now whenever there's a yellow light instead of zooming on through," one driver said in an interview.

But, that goal comes with quite a hefty price tag. The city pays $4,200 per camera per month to the vendor. That's the cost no matter how many red-light runner tickets are written.

"We basically are only averaging about 1.3 tickets per day," Newman said. "So that's enough to pay for the vendor's cost."

But this city isn't the only city in Missouri catching red-light runners with a camera enforcement system. So does Columbia. The difference is, instead of paying a $4,200 flat rate per camera like Springfield, Columbia only pays when a ticket is issued; with a price tag of only $28.50 to the vendor.

Newman says Columbia's cheaper price tag could portray the wrong message to drivers.

"There's no motive for our vendor to try to find as many potential violations in that as they can, that are even perhaps questionable violations, really close. There's no motive for them to generate any more citations," he said.

Newman says he thinks a flat rate means better public perception. And, as long as the city is breaking even, it doesn't matter how much it costs.

"I feel comfortable with what we've done," Newman said.

Newman says new systems at the intersection of Campbell at Sunshine Street and National at Sunshine will have camera enforcement systems running within the next two weeks. Those systems will operate in test-and-warning modes for about a month before the police department starts sending out citations to drivers.