Tuesday 28 August 2012

op/ed-photo radar

Perhaps I should read the Sun Media papers more often.If I did,who knows,I may just find myself in agreement with columnists more often than what I'm comfortable with.Scary thought.But all joking aside,I am in complete agreement with Lorne Gunther as to his story on the County Of Strathcona discontinuing the use of photo radar in favour of more officers on the streets.It is an entirely good thing.Even if it means lost revenue.

Lets face reality here.Photo radar is not enforcement.It does nothing to change behaviour.It is completely useless when someone engages in really dangerous behaviour like going say,one hundred over the limit,as seems to happen with some frequency.The photo radar unit just snaps a picture of the offenders plate and goes"Cha-ching"just a bit louder perhaps than if he offender had only been going ten over.In a tax based model of enforcement,the more dangerous the offense,the better the outcome.

But for as long as I can remember police have been telling us how enforcement isn't about revenue collection.They become indignant every time that we suggest that there may be something predatory about enforcing traffic laws.Really?Then why use photo radar at all.Why hide the police car behind the bushes in high traffic places.Oops,I forgot.Location,location ,location.If policing was really about gaining compliance it seems to me that you would simply park the traffic cops and their cruisers out in the open.Surely that would be a deterrent to reckless driving.So I applaud the County Of Strathcona for replacing tax collectors with real cops,who can presumably not only enforce speed limits,but enforce other laws as well.After all,when is the last time you ever heard of a photo radar unit stopping a rape in progress,or responding to an actual motor vehicle accident?Oh,right.Never!So while it's business as usual in the rest of Alberta,The County Of Strathcona has decided to quit abdicating their responsibilities andget back to some real,old fashioned policing. 

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