Photo radar reduction will have impact: LPS chief
By Lethbridge Herald on December 3, 2024.
A photo radar vehicle sits parked along South Parkside Drive South. LPS Chief Shahin Mehdizadeh says he and other police chiefs across the province are disappointed with the province’s announcement regarding changes to automated traffic enforcement.
Herald file photo by Alejandra Pulido-GuzmanAlejandra Pulido-Guzman – LETHBRIDGE HERALD – apulido@lethbridgeherald.com
Lethbridge Police Service Chief Shahin Mehdizadeh spoke to media Tuesday about the recent announcement from the Government of Alberta regarding changes to automated traffic enforcement.
Mehdizadeh said that in Lethbridge revenue from photo radar goes to the City, not LPS and therefore eliminating photo radar will not impact LPS financially, but it will in other ways.
Mehdizadeh said that he, as well as many chiefs of police across the province, were disappointed with the announcement.
“The decision is made and we have to move forward with it, but we were disappointed with the process as we weren’t involved with it to come to this decision,” said Mehdizadeh.
He said police disagree with the statements made by Minister of Transportation and Economic Corridors, Devin Dreeshen about photo radar only being a cash cow and how the new rules are going to promote traffic safety.
“We totally disagree with that because that’s not the case. We have very clear evidence and the chiefs of the larger cities have provided much more compelling evidence in their problem areas on how over the years they’ve been able to minimize collisions, fatality and injury collisions,” said Mehdizadeh.
He said the same has been evident on a smaller scale and one thing he hopes Lethbridge residents realize is that photo radar devices were never meant to be revenue-producing machines, they were meant as a safety tool, as a tool to aid LPS with traffic enforcement so they can utilize their resources in other areas.
“In fact, all the police services in this province and I would dare to say in Canada we’re trying to make our streets safer and we want to enhance public safety,” said Mehdizadeh.
He said that based on the last two years that police have been doing community town halls and the comments they get from citizens, it has become clear community members actually want more traffic enforcement, but because of this announcement there will be even less.
“One problem that we’re going to have is that this is one of the very few tasks police can actually do by use of technology and taking humans out of it. And obviously it’s much safer for not only police officers but also our citizens,” said Mehdizadeh.
He said by using photo radar, there is no need to pull people over on the side of the road, which can be dangerous not only for the officers but to the drivers as they are dealing with passing vehicles.
“Now that we’ve lost that opportunity, we have to now try to augment that through using police officers to actually hit that mandate and to be very honest with all our citizens, we do not have the capacity to do that,” said Mehdizadeh.
He said unfortunately as a result of the elimination of the photo radar and the lack of LPS resources to monitor traffic, residents will most likely see an increase in speeds and a change in driving behaviours, which is going to ultimately impact the safety of citizens on streets.
“We’ve shown the effectiveness of the photo radar as tools that have been used to keep our streets safer and the evidence has been given to the province many times, but it was ignored and at the end we are here,” said Mehdizadeh.
He said they will work with whatever decisions are made as they are out of their control, but they have to be realistic on how that will impact Lethbridge residents as they cannot spare officers from other units to enforce traffic violations when they are needed for crime related operations.
When asked about what it will take to be able to have enough officers to fill the gap left behind by photo radar reductions, Mehdizadeh said they would have to look into it and create a plan, but it will be costly.
“It would need a significant number of officers, but each officer is an added pressure to the taxes and the city. So, we can come up with a great plan for the city, but it’s going to cost significantly more and our budget is going to increase because we don’t have the use of this technology,” said Mehdizadeh.
The City, in response to a question from The Herald, on Tuesday afternoon provided the following statement:
“At this point in time, the City of Lethbridge is uncertain about the financial impact of the provincial change to photo radar. The City uses photo radar revenues to improve road safety within the community. With the planned photo radar cut proposed by the province, it will put additional pressure on the expected revenues in our multi-year budget and ultimately result in less money spent on traffic safety in Lethbridge.”
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Playing Devil’s advocate here. If I barrel through 10th on McGrath at 80km instead of 60km and 2 weeks later I get a ticket in the mail, or X weeks if a postal strike, how does that make the past situation of speeding at 80km any less dangerous for those around me at the time I am doing it?
Secondly, because most people 3 weeks later have the retention and brain cell structure of a chimp how does the ticket somehow get me to relate to an incident that occurred 3 weeks ago?
Lastly, if I happen to be a bitcoin enthusiast and recieve a ticket and have my secretary pay it from my chump change drawer and she never mentions it to me, what did I learn from the entire episode? If I just like doing 80 in a 60 and know that the photo radar just identifies the vehicle and not me, why should I give a crap? After all, the price of a litre of fuel can vary enough in a month that the ticket just disappears into the cost of driving!
So continuing with this theme, a single mother of 4 on welfare is rushing home in her 1993 Toyota, the floor boards are rotted out and she can barely pay the insurance premiums, she has assurances that when the UCP change to no fault her premiums will rise, momentarily, according to Smith, which is funny because nothing rises momentarily, it rises exponentially, then takes forever to reset. The reason she is rushing is because she thinks she left the stove on, by accident. She is so terrified that if there is any damage to her apartment that the landlord will toss her and her kids, that she speeds, just a little. She can’t check her $1000 phone because she doesn’t have one and cannot afford Rogers stupid rates anyway! This means she cannot check her non-existant WI-FI Camera’s and zoom in on the stove, either! She raced out of the house, because some store had 30 day beyond expiry, chickens on sale, for “$18.00 an ounce”, and she thinks she can get a hors d’oeuvre out of one, and pretend its a meal. (Coincidentally the Chairman of Loblaws also just received a photo radar ticket, but thats the only thing they have in common!) 3 weeks later she gets her ticket, everything is a blur and their is no recollection of doing the 80 in the 60. So to pay the ticket, she then tries to sort out what meal she will miss?
The funny thing is when people read the para above they will roll their eyes as if a drama queen has spoken! Why? because thats what Lethbridge does!
If I had described a Poor destitute drug addict driving fast because he was trying to get to rehab on time (his story not the truth), somehow that would be spun into societies fault and all hell would be broken loose! Sympathy towels would be thrown in, lectures from the “Pure among us, on how we keep beating them down, when they are trying to get up would be heralded from the Halls of Lethbridge U. Profs would gather in Gov Funded meetings trying to set up another Gov Funded facility to identify the issue! Fund raisers within the social network would go into hyperdrive by those that wash their feet!
Sometimes it sucks to be woke, doesn’t it?
PS For the COP and City of Lethbridge. This will be as popular as a needle directly into the eye socket with residents.
If the intent of Photo Radar is to catch speeders, and if you understand the primative brain, why do you accomodate excess speed by synchronizing street lights for the sake of traffic flow? If a “normal person” sees 4 green intersection lights directly ahead of him, his primordial brain kicks in and says, “get to Green 4 before Green 4 becomes Red 4! So are you intentionally feeding the beast? Most permanent cameras are on synchronized light streets, or on streets where a driver can see at least 3 lights ahead of him, coincidence? So the periods of synchronization can create speed and the times of day that do not synchronize gets a driver to blow threw an Amber or “press his luck”, seems like a bit of financially beneficial and organized entrapment to me?
How many times have you sat on Whoop-up Drive, like in a parking lot, waiting for the accident ahead to be cleared so you can continue home?
Many speed on this road and change lanes erratically, and it need photo radar to reduce the numbers of those who often are the cause of the accident. Photo radar didn’t give drivers demerits on their license, but now police radar will. Maybe this will reduce the erratic drivers better than photo radar? I still believe photo radar should have been allowed in all areas.
What about light synchronization, do you believe that has nothing to do with it? Not trying to put you on spot, just would like your opinion.
Photo radar should only be used in conjunction with digital speed signs. That way you are made instantly aware of your excess speed, and if you choose to intentionally ignore it you will then get a ticket
Saves lives immediately, not permitting one to unintentially continue speeding through that school zone and learn about it two weeks later.
Not a bad idea. Advanced warning flashing, slow down or you’re gonna be tuned.
FIrst if this wasn’t a cash cow related to fishing hole, Neufeld and Our chief wouldn’t be commenting. Pulling the safety card is bogus. They should have stats from all the “holes” that they set up in as to how much reduction has been made in traffic safety. So we have police in this town who won’t attend a break in at your home and garage if the garage is unattached. The measuring tool. Losing 10,000.00 of your property or less. However, we will employ two officers to attend and hand out a ticket for a dog off leash. Appears to some taking pictures of your dog off leash and then hanging around to get a picture of the vehicle you get in is life threatening. Suggestion for Chief and the Calgary chief. Take all those officers who are no longer required to attend fender benders, (approx. 40,000 minor accidents) a year in Calgary, buy some radar guns and get them out to enforce some traffic. Even sitting in school/playground zones and at some intersections better than photo radar on a Saturday morning in a rain storm by the Movie Mill (personal experience). Get permission for a camera at both ends of the Whoop Up bridge, get the speed limit to 60 kmh and then set the tolerance to 80 k before you start taking pictures. Will recover all the revenue you need in 3 months.