Bill Newton

Thanks for your response. Perhaps you can point us to those studies that show a consumer carbon tax is in any way effective in reducing carbon. Thank you.

3 0

Excellent article with some balance. I was the S/Sgt in charge of the EPS Traffic unit in 2003-2005. We had photo enforcement as part of our unit. Photo enforcement in those years brought in approximately $20 million each year. During that time we also engaged in significant staffed enforcement. Staffed enforcement operations involved police officers issuing summonses to violators with the potential of other enforcement activities like criminal warrant executions, suspended driver apprehensions as well as drug and firearms arrests. Photo radar made police agencies lazy without the consequence of dropping revenues. At $20,000,000.-- revenue a year

0 0 0

Distracted driving is not an issue here because law enforcement is not dealing with distracted driving. Just look around you in traffic. It's a problem That the RCMP or MES is doing proactive enforcement of any kind is a complete fiction. Never mind proactive traffic enforcement. I'm on the roads here daily, all day and the last time I experienced anything like a traffic blitz was a pre-covid impaired checkstop on Sturgeon Road at 1:30 P.M. on a Thursday! Proactive enforcement in St. Albert is a joke!

0 0 0

RCMP rank-and-file members are some of the best-trained and hardest-working law enforcement professionals in the country. I had the pleasure of working with many of these pros for 20 of my 30 years in policing in this region. The RCMP of today is in crisis. The scope of their responsibilities is far too large. As a result, their ability to do the job as an organization has been severely diminished. It's the old "trying to make a twin blanket fit a king-sized bed" analogy. Sad really for the members who are still working hard and caring even harder because they simply can't make this work.

0 0 0

This is all about money and has very little to do with traffic safety. It has been proven in studies in Australia, Finland, Sweden, Great Britain and Ireland that photo enforcement coupled with staffed enforcement is most effective AT REDUCING SERIOUS COLLISIONS.

Traffic enforcement in St. Albert is a joke. This from a retired Traffic Section Staff Sergeant.

1 0 0

I need to know much more on this issue. This is new to me and I am frankly quite concerned.

0 0 0

I find it interesting that the sole dissenting vote cited "not enough time" to consider the question of removing the RCMP. This person didn't say the decision was wrong, had nothing to say about the points in the study that lead to the vote, certainly had noting to say about community support for the move. Then the focus changed to watch the money. In light of the N.S. Mass Casualty Commission report, I suspect money considerations will be in flux for quite some time especially with an organization so roundly criticized. Training and organizational change ain't going to be cheap.

0 0 0

With the greatest of respect to Mayor Heron, the RCMP is NOT delivering on their promised goals and objectives. They haven't for years. Mayor Heron knows this. They are invisible in St. Albert unless they are responding to a call for service, visiting a school, or patrolling a park in a UTV. Proactive policing does not exist in St. Albert and the RCMP has admitted it calling what they do "reactive policing". Old cops like me call it "firehall policing". They refuse to be guided by community issues unless they tie into national and provincial issues. Time to move on.

0 0 0

A few proactive patrols would be nice. As I understand it, members only leave the office to respond to calls just like the fire department or to conduct follow-up investigations they can't do over the phone or email etc. There is a reason RCMP municipal contracts have been canceled all over the country. Quality of service vs. cost is the most cited reason.

0 0 0