A former police officer in Morinville says the town's photo radar guys aren't playing by the rules and wants council to call them to account.
Kevin Wedick was one of about 20 people at Morinville town council on June 14 to discuss photo radar. The town has had photo radar since 2009, with radar guns and speed-display signs operated by Edmonton's Independent Traffic Services (ITS) Ltd.
Wedick, a resident who served as a police officer in town during the 1980s and 2000s, accused ITS agents of bending the rules when giving out tickets. While he hasn't received a ticket in town himself, he's heard hundreds of complaints from residents over the last few months about ITS.
"I've caught the operator working school zones when there's no school," he says, and he's seen others get ticketed at school zone rates just after they've left a school zone.
But his biggest beef was the company's practice of policing transition zones, or the regions where drivers speed up upon seeing a higher posted speed limit. "[The car] is 30 metres from the end of the zone and up goes the gun."
Provincial guidelines say that operators are not supposed to police these zones without cause, Wedick says. "Why aren't you following the provincial guidelines?"
They are, says province
Alberta's Automated Traffic Enforcement Technology Guidelines says photo radar should not be used in transition zones "unless there are well documented concerns that would justify its use."
Transition zones don't formally exist under Alberta law, notes Matt Barker, director of law enforcement standards and audits with the solicitor general's office and one of the authors of the photo radar guidelines, so speed limits apply until you pass a sign that shows a new limit. "If the sign says 30, right where the sign is, that's where it starts."
But since people drive as if transition zones do exist, by accelerating when they see a higher speed limit ahead, the guidelines discourage operators from monitoring them. You can meter them, but "there has to be a rationale for it."
ITS monitors 100 Avenue eastbound as it leaves Morinville, for example, says company director Bruce Kaminski, because it leads towards an unmarked crosswalk and bus stop. There, the speed limit goes to 100 km/h from 50 km/h.
"We've had people travelling in excess of 170 to 180 kilometres an hour coming out of that [zone]," he says. The RCMP has specifically asked them to monitor it.
They also enforce school zones right up to the sign. "In a school zone, there is no transition zone, period," Kaminski says, citing provincial law. "There is zero leniency."
These zones are only active when school is in session and their computer systems reject any ticket given at a school zone rate when school is out. "In Morinville, we have never issued a ticket in a school zone when it hasn't been a school day." You can still get a ticket in that situation if you're going over 50 km/h, he adds.
Morinville's photo radar sites are publically available, says Mayor Lloyd Bertschi, and vetted by the town's transportation committee, the RCMP and the solicitor general. "We don't just willy-nilly put photo radar wherever we want."
The solicitor general hasn't found any problems with Morinville's photo radar program in the past, Barker adds.
St. Albert does not use photo radar in transition zones, says Terri Tereposky, photo enforcement co-ordinator with the St. Albert RCMP, but that doesn't mean people can speed in them. "If they're exceeding the speed limit within that zone, they're still speeding."
Police officers can still ticket you in these areas; they just won't do it with photo radar.
Cash cow or safety?
Wedick criticized the town for using photo radar as a cash cow, noting ITS pays its operators based on ticket revenue. "If he's not getting tickets, he's not getting paid."
Operators should be paid a flat wage instead, he argues. "This person is getting very wealthy at the expense of the town of Morinville."
The town has seen a 55 per cent drop in the number of speeding vehicles detected in town since the introduction of photo radar, according to community services director Susan MacDonald, and issued 1,300 fewer tickets last year than it did during the first year of the program.
That drop shows the program is working, Bertschi says. "It has always been and always will be about public safety."
Any issues with photo radar in Morinville should got to ITS at 780-438-4327, or the solicitor general's office at 780-427-3441.
