I am tipping my proverbial cap to the Amarillo City Commission for showing the courage of its convictions relating to the red-light cameras it has deployed at intersections throughout the city.

Rather than buckling to a vocal minority of critics, commissioners are increasing the number of cameras. They’re adding even more electronic eyes to watch for those individuals who cannot seem to avoid running through red lights and endangering other motorists and pedestrians.

It’s an interesting display of backbone. Lubbock installed red-light cameras some years ago and then pulled them down when the critics got too loud. Amarillo, on the other hand, has stood firm against the critics, telling them flat out that if you don’t want to get slapped with a fine, simply obey the law.

This criticism, incidentally, has puzzled me.

I cannot prove it from my perch, but I cannot get past this nagging notion that if someone were to conduct a thorough public opinion survey of residents regarding the red-light cameras, there would be a substantial majority of respondents who would favor them. I suspect there might be a large “no opinion” result in the sampling, but those who do have an opinion on the red-light cameras would endorse them — in my humble view.

However, the red-light camera critics in Amarillo have been vocal. They’ve managed to bluff and bluster more loudly than their small numbers would suggest.

Let’s understand one key element of the cameras’ deployment: The city isn’t raking in large sums of money for frills and needless expenses. State law requires cities to use the revenue derived from the fines they collect to go directly toward traffic improvement projects. Amarillo has done that.

So now the city is marching ahead with its program to persuade motorists to obey the red traffic lights that command them to “Stop.”

Maybe one day, the scofflaws will get the message.