Winnipeg Police Board chair, advocates support expanded photo radar enforcement

Winnipeg Police Board seat Markus Chambers wants the state to reappraisal its authorities connected photo radar, calling the existent argumentation “proscriptive.”

“Looking astatine the authorities the mode it’s written now, it truly confines america to exertion that is 23, 24 years old,” helium said, referring to the Highway Traffic Act. “Looking astatine the tech we person successful spot from 2001 with respect to photograph enforcement, we decidedly person to measurement it up.”

The Act limits photograph radar usage to construction, schoolhouse and playground zones, and intersections controlled by postulation lights. Chambers wants their usage expanded to residential neighbourhoods. Updated authorities could besides unfastened the doorway for caller technologies that tin summons idiosyncratic for utilizing their compartment telephone portion driving, and for causing excessive sound with their vehicle.

“It is that unit multiplier that we tin redeploy resources to different areas successful policing and marque definite that those concerns are met arsenic well,” helium added.

Bourkevale nonmigratory Daevid Ramey, who advocated for little velocity limits successful his neighbourhood, supports Chambers’s suggestion. Bourkevale was 1 of 4 neighbourhoods to enactment successful the City’s Residential Speed Limit Pilot Project. The country has since adopted a 30 km/h bounds permanently, down from 50 km/h.

“It’s been fantastic,” helium said, adding the assemblage has “really embraced” the little velocity limit.

But 1 happening that was missing from the pilot, helium says, was enforcement.

“We didn’t spot immoderate concerted effort astir enforcement. I cognize immoderate of our assemblage members advocated for enforcement and constabulary beingness down present and were met with varied success.”

But Ramey has inactive seen speeding successful the country — ironically successful the schoolhouse and playground areas wherever photograph enforcement is allowed.

“If we person the exertion to instrumentality attraction of those sorts of things and truly promote radical to wage attraction erstwhile they’re driving these 4,000-lb. vehicles down the road, past we request to usage each the tools that are disposable to us,” helium said.

Bike Winnipeg Executive Director Marc Cohoe agrees.

“They [police] should person that state to spell wherever they’re seeing problems, wherever they privation to interdict and wherever they privation to absorption their prevention and their enforcement,” helium said.

Cohoe adds velocity enforcement results successful safer roads for each users.

“Our extremity needs to beryllium zero fatalities and zero superior injuries connected our streets. Whether you’re walking, biking, busing oregon driving, it shouldn’t beryllium a substance of beingness and decease to get wherever you’re going.”

Photo radar enforcement has been criticized arsenic a “cash grab” for the Winnipeg Police Service. In 2019, the provincial PC authorities announced a reappraisal of the photograph radar strategy, but that reappraisal ne'er moved past the petition for proposals stage.

Chambers admits he’s gotten photograph radar tickets successful the past and says, “If you aren’t speeding, you don’t person to interest astir getting a ticket.”

Following a multi-year photograph enforcement review, Alberta’s provincial authorities admitted respective photograph enforcement sites, nicknamed “fishing holes,” had nary wide crushed for enforcement, and were being enforced lone arsenic a mode of collecting fines. The state announced past twelvemonth it would region enforcement successful those locations.

In a statement, provincial Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Lisa Naylor said, “The state is engaged successful positive, collaborative dialog with the Winnipeg Police Service astir their ongoing challenges with photograph enforcement. Our authorities is acceptable to enactment collaboratively to find the champion way guardant for this program.”