CAMPBELL — Mayor Bryan K. Tedesco has a simple and straightforward message to motorists who are impatient and in a hurry while driving through the city’s school zones: Slow down.

“I don’t want to see any little kids get hit. It hasn’t happened here, but we don’t want it to happen,” he said.

During his monthly town hall meeting Wednesday evening at the community center in Roosevelt Park, Tedesco discussed the problem of people who drive too fast in those areas, especially during regular school hours.

To emphasize his point, the mayor had Campbell Police Department Sgt. Tim Rauschenbach give a brief presentation on the use of a high-tech laser camera that is being used to deter speeding near the Campbell Literacy and Workforce and Cultural Center on state Route 616.

The results of a one- or two-week study showed speeding was an enormous problem by the center, a facility that many students and other young people use often beyond regular school hours, Mike Romeo, the department’s technology administrator, said.

Another problem area for speeding has been on Sanderson Avenue, near Campbell Memorial High School, Romeo said.

He added the camera has acted as a deterrence near the literacy center.

Other school zones in the city have unmanned cameras, some of which are issuing warnings for violations and others that are set to go live beginning early next month, he said.

After a grace period in which warnings were given to violators, the handheld camera is being used to issue citations to those who drive 11 mph or faster over the posted 20-mph speed limit. Fines generally start around $100, but will increase, depending on how much over the speed limit the motorist drives, Rauschenbach said.

Fines will go toward the schools and school safety efforts, Tedesco said.

Targeted enforcement during school hours takes place between 7 and 9 a.m. and 2 to 4 p.m.

Also at the meeting, police Chief Kevin Sferra said the department will be receiving a new pickup truck. The vehicle, the first of its kind for the department, will replace a 2014 cruiser that has about 140,000 miles, Sferra said.

In addition, Tedesco said the city has applied for about $680,000 in federal funding to go toward redeveloping brownfield acreage near the Mahoning River.