Fewer violations at red light photo enforced intersections and school zones can only mean one thing, Auburn police say — those cameras have reduced traffic violations in the City and enhanced public safety.

Thus the Auburn Police Department concludes in its latest report card on the program, “Photosafe Auburn, First Quarter Report, Jan. – March 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011.”

“It’s pretty much what we expected,” Auburn Mayor Pete Lewis said of the report. “The longer we have the cameras in operation, the lower the number of people who are breaking the law.”

The City launched the program on June 30, 2006 at two intersections: Auburn Way South and 4th Street Southeast; and Auburn Way South and M Street Southeast. It added Harvey Road and 8th Street in December of that year.

Today the program also numbers school zone safety cameras for Mt. Baker Middle School and Gildo Rey Elementary, and in the school safety zones of Chinook, Dick Scobee, Lea Hill and Arthur Jacobsen elementaries.

The data show that in the first quarters of the years 2008 to 2011, the number of red light violations dropped as follows:

• Auburn Way South and 4th, southbound, down 46.5 percent; northbound down 27.3

• M Street and Auburn Way South, westbound, down 31.3 percent; northbound: down 48.8 percent

• 8th and Harvey: down 41.1 percent

• Total: down 41.1 percent

The data for school zone speed enforcement is as follows:

• Scobee, eastbound, down 60.6 percent; westbound, down 20.8 percent

• Chinook, eastbound, down 57.1 percent; westbound down 32.9 percent

• Mt. Baker, eastbound, down 60 percent; westbound, down 77 percent

For the years 2010 and 2011, the school zone data for the newest cameras are as follows: Lea Hill Elementary, southbound, down 27.6; northbound down 41.9; and Arthur Jacobsen Elementary, southbound down 18.9, and northbound down 35.1.

City officials say the primary goal is to improve traffic safety through reduction of red light violations and associated collisions and to reduce speeding in designated school zones.

City officials say they have taken revenue from the program left over after all expenses are paid and dedicated it to other areas of the city under the umbrella of traffic calming. Cameras cannot be placed at every intersection and stretch of road. The report shows the following financial figures for the first quarter of 2011: revenue $259,410 and expenses $274,834, meaning it is currently costing more than it is taking in. Its life to date balance is $12,343.

The City regularly surveys people to locate new intersections and school zones to improve public safety. It is studying whether to add photo enforcement at railroad crossings.

Lewis brushed aside criticism from skeptics such as initiative guru Tim Eyman, who see the program as just another money-making scheme cooked up by local governments.

“There are outsiders who wish to have political gain from almost anything,” Lewis said. “We know that nobody’s dying, fewer people are being cited, and our neighborhoods are being made safer at the same time.”