Group says police emails show radar just a cash grab

JOE BRYKSA / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Enlarge Image

WiseUp Winnipeg's Todd Dube says police violated photo-radar rules.

FOR those against photo radar, the police emails are the smoking gun to show it's all about the cash and zero about public safety.

For police, the emails are nothing more than an electronic conversation taken completely out of context.

So went another day Monday in Winnipeg's evolving debate over the photo-enforcement program police instituted in 2003 to cut speeding and red-light running with surplus ticket revenue ($4.7 million in 2010) going into police operations.

On Monday, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) and WiseUp Winnipeg released an email exchange they obtained under a freedom-of-information request they claim shows Winnipeg police wanted to issue a media release in early October about a mobile photo-radar unit they had parked on Grant Avenue west of Nathaniel Street. It was the first time a photo radar had been deployed to the area since the program started.

But no release was issued, and it took almost a month for police to acknowledge the camera after dozens of drivers complained it had unfairly tagged them for speeding in the 50-kilometre-per-hour zone across from Grant Park High School.

"The question is why wasn't the public informed?" CTF Prairie director Colin Craig said at a news conference. "They went after the money instead."

Craig and WiseUp spokesman Todd Dube said the emails show police had a duty to tell the public the camera was there, but for some reason they didn't.

"Somebody made an executive decision to break all the rules," Dube said.

However, police said in a statement that after that email exchange, it was decided that ever since the program started eight years ago, police had never sent out a public notification about where photo radar is in school zones.

"It was determined that public notifications regarding enforcement in school zones has not been our practice and was not necessary as enforcement is conducted daily in school zones throughout the city," police said. "School zones are areas where the safety of students of all ages is paramount. The service will continue to utilize all types of speed enforcement to target those drivers who choose to drive over the speed limit."

Police also say they don't want to publicize school-zone photo enforcement because they want drivers, no matter where in the city, to think a mobile camera could be anywhere near a school.

"Our message to drivers continues to be, 'just slow down,' " police said.

Dube said he's heard from about 780 people who got a ticket -- a few got more than one -- from the camera at Grant near Nathaniel. Many of those are fighting the tickets with one case to be heard Wednesday based on a defence that the radar unit took an inaccurate reading because its beam was bouncing off light standards, sign poles and a fire hydrant.

Dube said if that argument is accepted, the hundreds of tickets the unit has issued will have to be refunded.

"We're talking about $4 million in tickets that should have never been issued," he said.

Police have said the camera is calibrated correctly and that in any case where there is a questionable radar reading, the benefit of the doubt goes to the driver.

bruce.owen@freepress.mb.ca

Message requests public be notified

"I smell a press release regarding school zones. I need to know when we are going to start enforcing and we need to do a press release prior to start of enforcement. Please do not start enforcement till you have drafted a press release and we have notified the PIO (police information office) and a release is done. Please!!!!!!"

-- Oct. 5, 2011 email from Winnipeg Police Service Staff Sgt. Mark Hodgson asking to hold off on issuing tickets by mobile camera at new location near Grant and Nathaniel

"We were going to start effective today. There are no tricks here. I will talk to you tomorrow. We will hold back the violations."

-- response from Const. Ray Howes

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition January 17, 2012 A4