LIVINGSTON PARISH - A new electronic device attached to a utility pole on Buddy Ellis Road near Juban Road is raising eyebrows.

"It's this red thing just staring at you, just lit up in the morning," resident Amanda Miller said.

She said it creeped her out when she first saw it last week.

"It was lit up red whenever I brought the kids to the school bus, and I didn't know what it was. My son says it's a camera."

A social media post about the device generated a lot of activity—some saying it's a license plate reader, another saying it's used to monitor speeders.

Fred Pinell, who lives on Buddy Ellis Road, said he saw some workers installing the device last week but didn't know who they were with.

"They were out there for about one day. I didn't even look at what the heck it was."

When asked, the Livingston Parish Sheriff's Office didn't specify what the device was, but a high-ranking Parish official said the sheriff's office has a license plate reader, but he doesn't know where it is located.

Residents say a traffic device is needed in the area because Buddy Ellis Road is dangerous, with a lot of speeders and fatal wrecks.

"We've had two accidents in my front yard. Thank God they were in the early mornings," Pinell said.

"We had two people get killed. One was two years ago, and the other was here recently," Miller said. "A boy who worked right there at the Dairy Queen got hit, and the car kept going, and they found him in the ditch the next day."

Even though the residents don't know what the device is, they hope it will at least slow down traffic in the area.