Mayor Kathy Sheehan said Saturday that she supports a bill that would empower the city to install red-light cameras at up to 20 intersections but was adamant the decision needs to be about public safety, not money.

“As you know, I am numbers driven, as is our police chief, and we we need to understand whether it’s really going to help us accomplish our public safety goals,” said Sheehan, a Democrat and former city treasurer who took office in January. “For me, it’s a public safety issue. This is not a revenue-driven decision at all.”

Sheehan said a traffic safety stakeholders panel convened by police Chief Steven Krokoff recommended the cameras. But Albany isn’t currently one of the handful of New York communities that have the state’s blessing to deploy them.

The bill, first reported Saturday by the Times Union, would not require the the city to install the cameras. But it would give city lawmakers the power to do so if they deemed it worthwhile.

Violations would be akin to traffic tickets, not moving violations that would result in points on drivers’ licenses.

“We can at least continue to explore it,” the mayor said, noting Syracuse ultimately decided not to install the cameras after winning state permission to do so in 2009.

Sheehan said there’s no disputing that people running red lights is has become a widespread problem in Albany, sometimes causing serious crashes.

“In the city of Albany, we have a problem with running red lights,” she said, adding that the color of a traffic signal to some drivers seems irrelevant. “The culture in Albany is if the light is pink, you go through it.”

Even if the cameras and the fines they generate — up to $50 each violation, according to the bill — did not make the city any money, Sheehan said officials should still consider installing them if there is evidence they would help make some intersections less dangerous.

Because the state Legislature will leave town next month for at least six months, Sheehan said it makes sense for the city to ask permission now or risk having to wait another year.

But she also questioned why this decision — and others like it — should be in the hands of state lawmakers, not local officials.

“I just don’t think that these are the kinds of issues that should be mandated by the state,” she said.

New York City began using red-light cameras in 1993 and is currently authorized by the state to have them at up to 150 locations.

The Albany bill is being sponsored by Assembly members Patricia Fahy and John T. McDonald III and state Sen. Neil Breslin.

“The ultimate goal is deterrence,” Sheehan said.