UPDATED: 11:26 a.m. EST November 13, 2003 Stopping Red Light Cameras With Spray BALTIMORE -- Red-light cameras may have met their match. Television station WBAL has discovered a controversial product that's supposed to shield license plates from the camera's eye and people are buying it. The station asked if it work, if it's legal and if it will put your safety at risk? The station said the red-light cameras loom over busy intersections -- poised like ray guns to zap the tags of drivers who run red lights.

Baltimore has 47 red-light cameras -- more than any other city in the entire country -- taking in more than $23.3 million since 1999 and forcing some people to find inventive ways to beat the system. One of them is a clear spray designed to blind the cameras. Photo Blocker is supposed to make license plates so reflective the tag becomes unreadable. A man who only wanted to be known as Mike -- because he doesn't want police to know who he is -- said he's one satisfied customer. He said he knows the spray works. "I've seen the red-light cameras go off right behind me, and I've never received anything, so I guess no news is good news."

The station contacted every jurisdiction in Maryland that uses red-light cameras -- hoping to one would put Photo Blocker to the test. But all declined. ACS, the company that operates most of the cameras, also refused to test it with the station's cameras rolling. "We tested it ourselves (and) it doesn't work. Take our word for it," a company representative said. The Denver police department wasn't afraid to test Photo Blocker. They used it against one of their speed cameras. Based on the photo finish, the product works. State lawmakers outlawed plate covers, but the statute doesn't specifically address sprays. The station asked Baltimore County police spokesman Sean Vinson if the spray is legal.

"We are not sure," he said. "We have not had an interpretation of the statute from the courts." But even if it were outlawed, it would be nearly impossible to detect. The company that makes and markets photo blocker says it doesn't encourage any one to run lights. "It's for people who accidentally get caught or accidentally speeding," said Ron Gamm from phantomplate.com. "They don't necessarily do it." At $30 a can, the makers of photo blocker are cashing in.