Alberta photo radar announcement ‘just hurtful’, Medicine Hat police chief says

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Dreeshan referred to the revenue generation of photo radar devices as a “cash cow” and called where police wait for speeders “fishing holes”.

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READ: Alberta government backing off photo radar use

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Dreeshan introduced the Alberta government’s plan to stifle photo radar usage by 70 per cent across the province.

Municipalities are tasked with assessing all photo radar sites to determine which will truly be effective by April 1 of next year.

Transportation minister Devin Dreeshen wears an apron advocating against “cash cows”. Capture/Government of Alberta stream

Murphy pointed out that comments made were not off the cuff, and that the theme of the announcement was quite deliberate.

“To say that it’s a cash cow and fishing holes is just hurtful to the good men and women that are out there trying to do the job,” he said.

“We audited our sites prior to this announcement. Every year, they got audited just so we could look at if the sites were appropriate,” he added.

“We don’t want to be doing that in fishing holes either. And we’re looking for enforcement in areas that are problematic.”

Murphy said that regulating photo radar even further than the city already has will be difficult. Additional resources would also be required with the reduced number of sites.

The transportation minister also made comments about advancements in road safety engineering.

Murphy has observed that cities have been implementing these methods for decades already.

He believes that the voices that should’ve been consulted are those of law enforcement officers themselves.

“It’s the manner in which things are delivered, I think that is the bother for me. And the law enforcement in our province was not given an audience with the minister to express how we feel,” he said.

“We have a pretty unique view. The chiefs in our province, they conduct enforcement, and we’re involved in every city and municipality in our province. And to not involve us in that, I just don’t think was right.”