Suffolk County Legislator Rob Trotta (R-Fort Salonga) put the county’s red light camera program back under the microscope this week, as he should. We appreciate his watchdog approach when it comes to the county’s finances — he went so far as to call the red light camera program, which photographs and tickets cars that run through red lights or don’t come to a full stop before turning right on red, “taxation by citation.”

This newspaper has been historically critical of the program, and when the county released its 2014 annual report on the matter, it reminded us why.

In 2014 alone, the county collected $27.5 million from about 321,000 citations issued. Most of that was profit — Suffolk paid the camera vendor only $9.5 million to operate the program. And the county’s net revenue that year represented an exponential increase from when the cameras went live in 2010.

We are not ignoring the statistics, though. We recognize that overall crashes decreased by 3 percent, right-angle crashes went down by 21 percent and crashes involving injury decreased 4 percent. Rear-end crashes, however, went up 42 percent.

But Suffolk County has gotten into a dangerous habit. While some lawmakers and residents remain critical of the cameras, our government now has several years of ever-increasing citation dollars going to the county’s general fund. If we were to nix the red light camera program, it would leave a gaping hole in the county’s pocketbook. Rather than cutting equal expenses, we all know where our government would turn to make up the difference: taxpayers’ wallets.

At this point, the best solution would be to go back in time and never allow the program to pass in the first place. Instead, we urge our lawmakers and neighbors to continue to be critical of the red light camera program and keep it honest as it evolves across our county. If there’s no way to dismantle it without passing the buck onto taxpayers, we hope together we can at least find a happier medium.

Suffolk County put out a request for proposals to help redefine what the former Steck-Philbin Landfill brownfield site on Old Northport Road in Kings Park could look like, and this week a Stony Brook group has proposed to build a solar farm there.

We were excited to read some of the details behind the Ecological Engineering of Long Island plan, which the firm’s president Shawn Nuzzo said would deliver significant amounts of solar electricity to Long Island’s power grid without decimating anymore of the area’s land.

This is the kind of development we hope our fellow Long Islanders can get behind.

The solar farm proposal is an example of what can be done with Long Island’s most problematic properties. All we need is for residents and politicians to give it a chance.

Oftentimes we encounter widespread resident opposition across our North Shore communities to development proposals of any sort for various reasons. But by giving projects like this a thorough look, coupled with an open mind, we believe we can address some of the biggest environmental issues facing the Island.

In this case, for example, transforming an industrial area into something that could benefit us all seems almost like a no-brainer. The former landfill site in Kings Park is no doubt an eyesore and a horrific blight on the greater North Shore community, so why not see it transformed by a legal and reputable business? EELI wants to come in and build a 6-megawatt solar farm through crowdfunding dollars, so let’s support the firm.

This quote from Nuzzo, also the president of the Three Village Civic Association, said it all: “Unlike other recent utility solar projects on Long Island — where large developers have proposed to clear-cut forests, raze golf courses and blanket farmable lands — our proposal takes a dangerous, long-blighted and otherwise useless parcel and revives it as a community-owned solar farm,” he said.

We say reputable, by the way, because of the several letters of support Nuzzo and his team received from some of the North Shore’s staunchest environmental advocates, including state Assemblyman Steve Englebright (D-Setauket) and Brookhaven Town Councilwoman Valerie Cartright (D-Port Jefferson Station).

This property is a perfect example of what we could do with so many more of our neglected areas across the North Shore. The landfill is not situated directly next door to someone’s house, so the “not in my backyard” argument holds a little less weight. It’s time we think smart when it comes to repurposing our landscape.

This past Tuesday was International Women’s Day, and the message behind such an occasion is still very important, necessary and timely.

As we come off celebrating the day, time should be taken to reflect on the challenges that women still face today. Unequal compensation and women’s health issues are still hotly debated —  but these subjects can be traced back to much earlier times.

Stories come from all over the country about young female students being taken out of school for outfits deemed too revealing by administrators, even despite the widespread acceptance of boys shedding their shirts to play basketball or in the stands at football games. Girls’ sports teams have a harder time getting necessary funding for new uniforms and equipment, and many young women still get a puzzled look from others if they express interest in certain educational fields.

We heard one story in which a male engineering student told a female classmate that she must be lost as she walked in for the first day, also telling her that she wouldn’t last long.

It’s not only up to women to push back against sexist beliefs, thoughts or stigmas. It is also up to men.

We need to teach our boys at a young age how to view women — as their equals. We need to instill in them the correct way to value women and understand that women can make just as many contributions as females can.

Women can only achieve true equality if men stand by their side as partners. Let’s strive to raise a generation of men who will be proud to be those partners.

A new 24-hour hotline will soon be available to Long Islanders battling addiction, bringing new hope to families struggling to overcome drug-related issues.

Suffolk County officials recently announced their hotline, which the Long Island Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence will run in order to direct callers to different resources in the area based upon their needs. It could launch by April.

While addiction is a growing issue that lawmakers have struggled to address, this hotline will become a new tool to combat it. We can see it assisting many people who previously would not have known where to turn. It could be particularly helpful because it will provide an easy route for a population that is often so isolated that they have trouble digging themselves out of the hole of addiction. Some have been pushed away by their families, or have only old friends who reinforce bad habits. But the hotline will be there in their moment of clarity, no matter the hour, to steer them toward the support they need.

Until the hotline launches a few weeks from now, there are other places to call for help:

• LICADD: 631-979-1700

• Response of Suffolk County 24-hour hotline: 631-751-7500

• Hope House Ministries: 631-978-0188

• Phoenix House’s Edward D. Miller substance abuse treatment center: 844-447-0310

• Samaritan Village’s Suffolk Outpatient Treatment Program: 631-351-7112

• St. Charles Hospital rehab program: 631-474-6233

This version removes an incorrect phone number.

The Suffolk County Police Department needs more oversight, but a committee entirely composed of Suffolk County legislators is not going to cut it.

Rob Trotta, the Republican representative for the 13th Legislative District, called upon his experience in law enforcement when he proposed such a committee to investigate and oversee county police operations. There have been concerns after issues such as former police chief James Burke’s resignation last year amid charges of civil rights violations. Trotta is a former Suffolk County detective who once worked on the FBI’s Long Island task force. His idea would put six members of the Legislature on this committee to review police practices, as well as those in the district attorney’s office and the county sheriff’s office, and investigate allegations of favoritism and other issues.

While we support his notion of assembling an oversight committee to keep the county police department honest, we also prefer bringing in people from different backgrounds. There should be legislators involved on the committee, but we would limit it to only two members — one from the Legislature’s majority party and one from its minority. From there, we would add a local expert on ethics, one representative each from the police department, sheriff’s office and DA’s office, and perhaps a financial member such as Comptroller John M. Kennedy Jr. Bringing together these different brains and skill sets would bring more ideas to the table and help in problem-solving — diversity in opinions and backgrounds could enhance the conversation.

Having this sort of diverse membership would also help prevent abuse, as the committee Trotta has proposed will have the authority to subpoena and to administer oaths and affirmations. Not that we think our legislators are necessarily untrustworthy, but putting that level of power into the hands of any one lone group is asking for trouble. We already have enough of that with people who have abused their authority — that’s why we’re in this position in the first place.