Smile, you’re on camera.

State transportation officials have installed motion sensitive cameras at 37 locations throughout St. Tammany to monitor traffic flow that trips stop light timing for smoother commutes, said Alan Dale, DOTD’s district operation engineer for District 62, which oversees St. Tammany Parish.

Unlike a traffic initiative using cameras in Jefferson and Orleans parishes to crack down on speeders or stop light violators, the cameras do not record and ticket drivers, he said.

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“There is no film involved,” Dale said. “It’s truly a detection device. It’s only hitting a switch for the lights.”

Jack Harper B Contractor Inc. of Mandeville, the company responsible for the $154,000 year-long contract for six parishes, including St. Helena, Washington, Tangipahoa, Livingston and St. John, slates seven more cameras for installation at existing interchanges in coming months. Newly built intersections such as the Fremaux interchange ramp will come equipped with the $10,000 video hub.

The cameras are DOTD’s way to improve timing mechanisms called “loops,” already built underneath paved roadways approaching intersections.

Those “loops” produce a magnetic field triggered by a passing vehicle that sends signals to change the light when cars are approaching.

But those “loops” often fail, leaving motorists stranded at stoplights longer than preferred, Dale said.

Many times the pavement will deteriorate over time, and during summer to winter months, concrete sections of road expand and contract, sometimes dislodging the wiring mechanisms.

“It’s just something that wears out over time,” Dale said.

Repair time can take up to four hours to jackhammer into concrete and reset the wires, causing additional traffic delays, he said.

And although the cameras are more expensive — $10,000 compared to $2,000 for the in-ground loop — they can be used to offset several loops in different lanes and are easily replaceable at $3,000 each.

The news comes as welcome relief to many worried that “Big Brother” government was monitoring daily motorists.

Stopped at an area stoplight recently, Mandeville’s Hew Hamilton glanced up out of his convertible only to find a video camera staring back at him.

Then at another intersection several blocks away he saw another. Then another. And another.

“I hear all of the news stories about (cameras) across the lake, but nothing over here. Yet they are at least three intersections around me, and I’m sure there are many more,” Hamilton said.

“That explanation certainly makes sense.”