Police Chief Mark Saunders has told a meeting of Leaside residents that it is necessary to transform policing of traffic in Toronto by the widespread use of modern technology. The chief noted that he has 360 fewer officers now because of budget cuts, creating the lowest TPS complement in recent years What the chief called “the leveraging technology” of automatic cameras has been his priority since he became head of the service earlier this year. He also spoke of how changes in public attitude toward technology have changed the opportunity for leverage. “I can tell you that 15 years ago there was no public appetite for that. If I spoke to you about utilizing technology for traffic enforcement you would have shooed me out the door.” Frankly, said the chief, people are behaving a lot worse on the roads in 2015 than when he first became a policeman. “Distracted driving is killing more people than impaired driving right now. That’s a cultural change that’s going to take some time to resolve.
LOBBYING GOVERNMENTS
Chief Saunders said the Toronto Police Service has approached governments at all levels to talk about the importance of technology. What’s good said Saunders is that new cameras are cheap (maybe $1,000 each). They are indiscriminate, he said. They measure behaviour. In countries where such cameras are used “drivers behave” he declared. “It’s not optional. You get the ticket and it reduces fatalities by 20 percent.” In answer to questions, Chief Saunders said new and compact camera equipment will replace a few bulky and obsolete units now being used. At present, the cameras are obvious and the effect is to improve local behaviour temporarily at a few locations.
NUMBER ONE IN SAFETY
The chief was asked about the behaviour of pedestrians. He said that headphones and distracted walking were a concern but in terms of people injured compared to previous decades “there’s not much of a difference.” The chief made a plea for families to talk about good practice in both driving and walking. He emphasized the need for pedestrians to look before plunging into the road on a green light. He spoke of how safe Toronto is in relative terms. “We’re at 2.8 million right now in a very small geographic space. We get along really well. When you compare our City to all the other cities in North America were are still ranked the safest by far,” said Chief Saunders.
MOTION BEFORE CITY COUNCIL
The meeting was organized by Councillor Jon Burnside and held at the Lea Room at Leaside Arena Tuesday, November 3, 2015. He has a motion before City Council calling for technology based traffic enforcement much like the ideas expressed by the Chief. Mr. Burnside reviewed community concerns and said he wanted residents to hear from the police about their challenges in meeting public expectations. Some residents in attendance were Carol Burtin Fripp, Patrick Rocca and Geoff Kettel.
