Click and ticket! Your next ticket might come from the 'puter posse. More cities and states are turning to surveillance cameras to nab speeders and red light-runners. Called "photo-enforcement technology," the strategically placed cameras catch you red-handed, taking a picture of your license plate as you speed through the intersection or down the highway. The ticket arrives some weeks later in the mail, long after you've already forgotten that little infraction you thought you got away with.

"Between 1995 and 2005, the estimated number of vehicle miles traveled in the United States increased by 23%, but the number of municipal law-enforcement officers grew by 12%," said Stephen Oesch, VP of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, which supports the electronic snooping. Municipalities and states are using traffic cameras instead of more costly troopers to pick up some of the slack. Safety is the reason most government entities give for installing cameras, but critics say their motives are equally driven by the lure of quick cash.

With an enforcement camera, "you can pick off 20 people an hour, easily," complained Shannon Atkinson, president of www.Njection.com. Atkinson's website merges Google maps with onsite reports from motorists pinpointing speed traps -- both human and electronic. Njection just started supplying its speed trap technology to GPS navigation company Garmin with plans to add TomTom and others soon. Could be a good investment!