NEWBURGH HEIGHTS – A warning for speeding drivers. The Fox 8 I-Team has found a new way police are catching speeders on I-77 without pulling them over.

Newburgh Heights Police are now using hand-held speed cameras. Officers use new technology to clock speeds and take snapshots of license plates. Later, drivers get tickets in the mail for fines ranging from $150 to $300.

The tickets are civil, the same as those that have been generated by speed cameras on poles in this town and so many others. Of course, the speed and red-light cameras have either been outlawed by voters or restricted by state lawmakers.

The Newburgh Heights Police Chief says enforcing speed this way on a busy highway is much safer for officers. Last year, a Newburgh Heights officer watching for speeders got hit by a drunk driver on I-77.

Chief John Majoy said, “Our end goal is to slow down. And there’s a sure-fire way to not get a ticket from this thing—don’t speed.”

Ron Leaman got a ticket in the mail, and he’s fighting it. “To me, it’s an ambush,” he said.

He also told the I-Team, “It is a precedent-setting thing. If they’re allowed to do it, every city in the state will start doing it.”

The Chief says Newburgh Heights. leaders passed a special ordinance making the hand-held unit legal.

If you get a hand-held speed-camera ticket, again it’s civil, so you won’t get points on your license.

But the chief points out, sometimes officers also will be on I-77 stopping speeders issuing criminal citations.

So watch your speed and your mailbox.