Mobile speed safety cameras designed to protect school zones are creating unexpected traffic problems for Colorado Springs drivers, according to local residents who say poor placement is causing dangerous backups.Justin Baker ph otographed one of the enforcement vehicles parked Thursday morning on Shelton Road in the middle of a traffic lane with a single orange cone for visibility. The placement, near Centennial Elementary School and a busy intersection, created significant traffic delays during the morning commute. Photo taken by Justin Baker"The new law enforcement speed vehicles was posted out on Shelton Road in the middle of the lane. He only had one cone out. You really can't even see what is going on until you get up to it. All the traffic was backed up," Baker said. The backup frustrated drivers navigating their early commutes, with morning sunlight making the single cone even harder to spot.Colorado Springs Police Department public information officer Ira Cronin defended the camera placement, emphasizing the safety purpose behind the enforcement."If you're going 20 miles an hour and you're not going to see an orange safety cone and a vehicle marked photo enforcement, how much easier is it going to be for you to miss a small child who may be getting ready to try to, you know, hopefully cross at the crosswalk, but what if that small child darts into traffic?" Cronin said.Police noted that Baker's photo didn't show a blue warning sign posted at least 300 yards before the mobile camera location, alerting drivers to parking enforcement ahead."That would have been in front of the yellow flashers that then say 20 mile an hour school zone. This is just a challenging stretch of road," Cronin said.ALSO READ | CSPD introduces two mobile Speed Safety Camera systems to identify speeding carsDuring the 30-minute deployment outside Centennial Elementary School, five drivers received warnings. CSPD says two were traveling 37 mph in the 20 mph school zone. Two others were going 33, and the final warning was issued to a driver going 32 miles per hour.CSPD tells News5 warnings and speeding tickets are only given if a driver is going 11 miles over the speed limit."If we made $0 off this, we would love that because that means every driver that comes through the school zones that we're monitoring are going within the speed limit," Cronin said.Baker acknowledged the importance of school zone safety while expressing concerns about the high-traffic location."Nobody wants to see people speeding through school zones. We want to keep the children safe. I mean, I walked to school every day growing up, so I fully understand. But in between both of those schools going all the way to academy, that is a high traffic area, especially in the morning," Baker said.Police maintain that enforcement vehicles can park wherever necessary to enforce traffic laws, even if it creates temporary inconvenience for drivers. The mobile cameras are intended to slow traffic in school zones, neighborhoods, and areas near parks._______Watch KOAA News5 on your time, anytime with our free streaming app available for your Roku, FireTV, AppleTV and Android TV. Just search KOAA News5, download and start watching. ...read more read less