Councillor seeks green light to bring photo radar to Kingston

Posted Feb 2, 2012 By Bill Hutchins

EMC News - There are renewed calls to reinstate photo radar, not on provincial highways, but to keep watch over Kingston streets.

Rural councillor Jeff Scott is spearheading a motion that calls on the province to allow Ontario's police services boards to manage and use photo radar "at their discretion" to combat speeding.

"It's possibly one more tool to help our police to monitor speed limits," he explained.

But city councillors were hesitant to vote on the motion when it was first introduced at the January 24 council meeting, citing the need to first get feedback from the Kingston police services board.

"This is very much an issue that needs more information," said Coun. Dorothy Hector, who also serves on the local police board.

Coun. Hector says Kingston police already have the authority to install red light cameras at accident-prone intersections, but backed away from the measure because of the cost involved.

It costs an estimated $80,000 to install red light cameras at each intersection, plus the ongoing cost to maintain and manage them.

Photo radar, she says, could be just as costly to implement. Under the proposal, automated cameras would be set up on certain local streets to snap pictures of the license plates of speeding cars, and the fines would be mailed unsuspecting motorists.

Council has deferred the motion until April, when it expects to hear a response from its civilian police board.

"If it did come to the board we would look at it at that time and review it," said police board chair Andrea Risk.

Police chief Stephen Tanner says the use of automated cameras to reduce speeding has some merit.

"Photo radar is an option for enforcement. It certainly has a deterrent value. I know when there was photo radar on the 401 - the 400-series highways - it was a deterrent to myself and others."

Photo radar was controversial from the moment it was first introduced as a pilot project on selected highways in Ontario in 1994, and was soon scrapped by former premier Mike Harris. The province has resisted municipal calls to reinstate it ever since.

Kingston's motion to bring it back follows a request by the police board in Nottawasaga, near Barrie, asking other municipalities to support it.

Chief Tanner says photo radar would generate more fine revenues for municipal coffers and allow the re-deployment of officers to other duties, but it could also cost more to maintain the machines. "What we need is a full analysis of photo radar and the advantages and disadvantages of it. A cost-benefit analysis," he explained.

It's not yet clear whether the five-member Kingston police board will agree to fund a study on the merits of photo radar.

The police board does not report directly to council, even though it receives $31 million from the city to oversee policing.

Traffic enforcement has been stepped up in Kingston since Tanner became police chief, with dedicated radar patrols and other traffic safety blitzes.