PHOENIX -- Arizona's new photo speed enforcement program started today.

Speeding vehicles triggered one unit's cameras 110 times during a nearly three-hour period Friday morning.

The program generated controversy even before it started, with a losing bidder challenging the contract, critics claiming it is all about money and leaders of the insurance industry complaining about how tickets will impact driver's licenses.

Ron Williams of the Arizona Insurance Council said tickets issued through the state-operated photo radar systems will be hidden from the violator's driving record and insurance companies, while drivers ticketed in city or county photo radar systems have their tickets recorded.

"If all you're going to do is have to pay a fine -- and you know the ticket's not going to end up on your record -- then that's going to be a public safety factor," said Williams.

He said insurance companies will not be aware of the driver's behavior, and the statewide speed cameras will only encourage unsafe drivers to repeat their dangerous behavior, while paying the same insurance rates as safe drivers.

Fines for those caught on the state cams will be between $150 and $180.

The governor's office estimates the photo radar program will generate about $90 million in new revenue, but Gov. Janet Napolitano said that is not the main purpose of the program.

"It is not my intent to use photo radar to substitute for officers on the highway for DPS," the governor said. "It is to complement public safety on the road. Photo radar has a real safety impact."

She added, "We didn't include any revenue from photo radar in the '09 budget."

The program will begin with three vehicles deployed in the Phoenix area, chosen for its population and freeway junctions where speed-related collisions are common, said Department of Public Safety Lt. James Warriner.

"We look at this as one more tool in our toolbox to make the roads safer for the motoring public," he said.

Warriner said DPS expects four more mobile units within a week and five more weekly until there's 40 by the end of November. Meanwhile, the first fixed camera should be up by late October, positioned on Interstate 10 in Phoenix, he said.

Arizona's program will be the first such statewide deployment by a U.S. state, although similar programs are used in other countries.

The DPS contract with Redflex Traffic Systems Inc. calls for 100 fixed and mobile cameras to be deployed statewide within several months.

The camera vehicles, hybrid Ford Escapes, are painted white with blue Arizona Highway Patrol decals. "They look just like our patrol cars,'' Warriner said.