Cities across Hampton Roads are working to outsmart people who are tripping traffic signals from red to green.

"It's a tremendous problem, especially on highly pre-empted corridors," said Frank Hickman, traffic operations manager for the city of Virginia Beach.

Hickman says fire trucks and police vehicles are equipped with a system called Opticom. It uses infrared lights for emergency crews to turn a red light green while the vehicle is en route to emergency situations.

"We've seen that happen. It's very hard to verify," said Hickman.

However, he says people are finding ways to mimic the pattern of lights and trip the signals illegally.

David Evans is a part of 757Labs, a technology club. He says the problem is many people can easily replicate the pattern of lights to trip traffic signals.

"The signal is basically similar to what you use in a TV remote. It just basically sends out a certain frequency of flashing lights," said Evans.

"When you're driving through an intersection and you see it trip, there's no emergency vehicle around in any way, shape, or form, you know somebody has an illegal device or an unauthorized device," said Hickman.

785 police cars and fire trucks across Hampton Roads have transponders to legally change the signals.

13News has learned that regional transportation officials are applying for $133,000 in funds to try and lock out anyone illegally tripping the system. It would allow consultants to code 777 intersections across the area.

"If your vehicle does not have a specific ID number and code, it's recognizable that by the intersection you won't be able to pre-empt the intersection," said Hickman.

However, the process to get the funding for the project won't be quick. Transportation officials expect the coding to happen by 2017.