A House committee approved banning radar and red-light cameras used for issuing tickets, despite law enforcement officials’ testimony that the devices make the roads safer.

Proponents of the ban, however, called the cameras “cash cows” for the nine Colorado cities that use them.

The measure passed Wednesday on an 8-5 vote that crossed party lines.

Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey and traffic-enforcement leaders from several metro Denver cities said the cameras make drivers think about their conduct behind the wheel.

“Shoplifters don’t like to get caught either,” Morrissey told the House Transportation and Energy Committee. “But you’re not here talking about banning cameras in 7-Eleven when they get caught.”

A legislative analysis found the cameras raised $14 million in fines last year, including more than $6.5 million in Denver alone. In 2013, Denver collected $7.8 million in fines for speeding and red-light violations.

The cities that use them, according to the analysis, are Denver, Fort Collins, Aurora, Boulder, Pueblo, Littleton, Commerce City, Greenwood Village and Sheridan.

The cameras covered by the bill include those in a fixed position and those in vans.

The high profits undermine public confidence in law enforcement, said one of the bill’s 28 co-sponsors, Rep. Steve Humphrey, R-Severance.

Rep. Tracy Kraft-Tharp, D-Arvada, pressed Morrissey and other traffic-camera supporters for proof that cameras — and not engineering or other factors — hold down accidents.

“The issue for me is, one, should cities be making a profit off these, and, two, where should those profits go,” Kraft-Tharp said.

Lt. Robert Rock, who leads the Denver Police Department’s Traffic Investigation Unit, said four locations with red-light cameras saw no crashes last year and in 2013 and only one in 2012.

Paul Houston of Denver said he held up a sign outside the Capitol before the hearing asking drivers to honk if they hated the cameras. He asked committee members whether they heard the horns.

“When a robot generates a ticket and it’s mailed to you by a private-sector vendor and the same private-sector vendor, which has a vested interest in this whole thing, can put your name on a credit report, there’s got to be something wrong with that,” he said.

U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter, a Democrat from Golden, is trying to pass a national ban, too.