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Whereas provincial officers rejoice the completion of the Calgary ring highway, town’s police chief mentioned he’s lower than pleased with those self same lawmakers calling velocity digital camera use on the freeway “fishing holes.”
In a year-end interview, Mark Neufeld mentioned statements made final month by Transportation and Financial Corridors Minister Devin Dreeshen have been insulting to police. Dreeshen mentioned automated digital camera enforcement on the 101-kilometre ring highway have been fishing holes and money cows.
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On the similar time, Dreeshen directed they be faraway from the provincially operated artery as of Dec. 1, to be redeployed elsewhere within the metropolis at locations resembling development zones.
Neufeld advised there’s some hypocrisy in deeming that enforcement greed-driven.
“I used to be a bit disillusioned with the language as a result of policing is a provincial accountability as effectively, so to counsel these are fishing holes or picture radar’s a money cow calls the integrity of police organizations into query,” mentioned Neufeld, who’ll mark 5 years as chief in June.
“The language was a bit provocative.”
The province mentioned it’s additionally embarking on a one-year overview with 26 municipalities on presumably eradicating picture radar at among the 2,387 digital camera websites throughout Alberta, the place income technology seems to be the only real cause for being arrange in that spot.
Eight of these cameras have been relocated from Stoney Path.
“When you have got sure lovely highways constructed and engineered very effectively, and also you’re seeing low accident knowledge and but a whole lot of hundreds of {dollars} of ticket income, that in most individuals’s minds is a fishing gap,” mentioned Dreeshen.
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“These websites are targeted on income reasonably than site visitors security, so this can finish within the province of Alberta.”
However Neufeld mentioned that’s a very simplistic tackle enforcement he has at all times insisted is about security.
The risks dealing with emergency crews engaged on Stoney Path shouldn’t be underplayed, he mentioned.
“In a metropolis with 4 seasons . . . whenever you cease a automobile in enforcement with cops, you get some sense of how susceptible you possibly can really feel.
“There’s much more to automated enforcement that’s captured within the debate.”
Following a snowstorm final October, Neufeld mentioned two police autos somewhere else “have been wiped off of the ring highway by autos going by, who both weren’t paying consideration or slid off.
“Officers have been tremendous fortunate to not be damage there.”
However on the similar time, the chief mentioned he’s pleased to redeploy the cameras to locations resembling development zones, “the place they make sense and to work with the province.”
Starting in April 2022, municipalities needed to justify the place they positioned picture radar traps and have been prevented from establishing in velocity transition areas or these marked beneath 50 km/h, besides in development and playground zones.
A freeze on including new intersection-mounted dashing cameras additionally got here into impact Dec. 1, 2019. The federal government required picture radar autos to be made seen, and that double ticketing of motorists inside 5 minutes of the primary one being issued be stopped.
All of these measures have been prolonged for one more yr.
X (Twitter): @BillKaufmannjrn
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