Re: Photo radar Robin Hood, Gazette, Feb. 20:
Another St. Albert resident has publicly complained about unfair enforcement of vehicle speed limits. This time near a playground during the winter months. Although the complaint is without merit, the article did reveal a more troubling issue – the lack of transparency in how and why locations are chosen for these enforcement actions.
In order for the public to be reassured that photo radar is not being used as a cash cow, the bureaucrats administering the program should be able to come up with specific information as to why a particular location is being monitored, especially when being interviewed by a media outlet.
In the article published in the Gazette on Feb. 20, when interviewed, Stu Fraser, the city’s peace officer program supervisor, was quoted as saying, “The Forest Park site had 140 visits in 2015 … Forest Drive continues to be an area where we see high numbers of speeding vehicles … officers enforce zones with the highest traffic volume and speeding concerns.”
These are all statements designed to placate the public, however they fail to answer questions such as to why this area would be monitored 140 times in a year? Parks around my home in Oakmont are not monitored anywhere near that amount. Is this a normal amount? How many public complaints were made to the police and/or the transportation department to warrant this number at this location? Are all playgrounds visited the same amount of times?
As well, Fraser and Dean Schick, the city's transportation manager, should have been readily able to supply statistics regarding the number of vehicles that have travelled down this road for it to be considered a high traffic area, and what percentage of vehicles were cited for speeding for what speeds over the limit.
Anything less than full transparency in answering questions like this do not allay the concerns of many residents that photo enforcement is being used for little more than a despised revenue generating tool at locations determined solely by the operators for the highest quota of tickets – commonly referred to as a duck pond by those in law enforcement.
Randy Kish, St. Albert
