The first tickets arrived in the mail today and only 11 News can show you pictures taken by those new red light cameras.

KHOU-TV

If you're running a red light, you probably won't be smiling when you get a ticket in the mail.

Wednesday we learned there may be a problem.

If you think you ran a red light in the last few days, maybe you saw the tell tale flash. Cross your fingers when you go to the mailbox.

If you see one of the tickets, and chose to fight it, now what?

Defense Attorney Paul Kubosh thinks he knows.

“Administrative officer says here are the photos. You are the registered owner. Can you give us someone else who was driving the car? If you can’t then pay me,” said Kubosh.

At the municipal courthouse, initially two administrative officers will be reviewing contested violations.

The company that administers the system says more than 300,000 violations are issued in New York every year.

Houston could rival that but what if just a third of those people choose to fight?

“You are talking about a 100,000 people a year going to that Municipal Court, in a place that is already rampant with overcrowding, “Kubosh said .

City officials would not appear on camera but say that more administrators will be assigned as the program grows and space will not be a problem.

But there is another potential hitch

HPD says for now it has two full-time uniformed traffic enforcement officers who are reviewing each case before a citation is issued.

In addition to looking at the photos, those officers also have video of the violation to review.

Once they confirm the violation that officer puts his name on the ticket and becomes the officer of record for the violation.

“I will issue a subpoena for the police officer in every case. And I will have him testify that he actually is the person who reviewed that and he has personal knowledge of looking at this film,” said Kubosh.

If that officer is called to court, he will not be available to review citations.

That can pile up quickly.

HPD would also not talk on camera tonight.

But they say more officers could easily be added to handle the load.

And even they aren’t yet sure exactly how the subpoena process will work in these cases.