In the 2010 budget, only 4% of the police budget and 5% of police staffing went to traffic enforcement.
Now THIS is how you complain.
- Thread starter OpenGambit
- Start date
Over investigating crime?
BS!
Besides, it's bad enough that the politicians pander to the self-serving demands of their electorate by installing stop signs, reduced speed limits or increased fines, speed bumps everywhere. The police force has a responsibility to fulfill which MUST NOT be swayed by pandering!
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And what percentage was used for active street patrol?
Much more than that allocated for traffic enforcement. The budget is here. http://www.tpsb.ca/FS/download/321/chk,0467302f170b9d88bf75e8186b7458d1.
Something else to think about - a huge chunk of the traffic "enforcement" division cops don't spend their days doing radar traps and staking out intersection. They spend their days investigating traffic crashes, of which there were almost 55,000 recorded in Toronto in 2010.
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I'm sure that going straight at the intersection on Shaw Avenue between 7 am and 9 am is such a major hazard so as to warrant having a ticket-writer sitting there every day.
Many residential streets in Toronto have turn restrictions to keep heavy cut-through rush hour traffic out of narrow residential neighbourhood streets. This is a quality of life issue for those living in those neighbourhoods, and one can argue that heavy traffic on narrow streets with limited sightlines does in fact create a safety consideration for people living on those streets.
Without enforcement (that "ticket-writer") and without a sufficient financial penalty (fines, considered by some to be just "revenue") in place, nobody would comply with those restrictions. If there is sufficient "business" to justify the presence of that cop in that location, then there is a compliance problem that warrants enforcement.
If the cops are able to write that many tickets for rush-hour turn restriction violations, then there is clearly an issue with scofflaw drivers disregarding signs authorized by City Council and intended to deal with a neighbourhood quality of life issue. Why should anyone have any sympathy for those drivers?
LGdrama
Well-known member
Wait until someones kid dies or a cyclist gets hit by a car going through that intersection that they shouldn't. Then everyone will scream "where were the police exercising that traffic law"
I'm still waiting for the whole "bad cop experience" stories to come out...
Turbodish you are correct but the smurfs on GTAM will never understand that traffic cops are only a small portion/percentage of cops, and society/these people are basing all their knowledge on "experience" with those types of officers.
Most people do not encounter front line officers, detectives etc unless they have a situation where those officers are required (fire,suicide,domestic, tragedy, robbery, sex assault, etc)- probability is low especially with this crowd.
09SV650S
Well-known member
Crazy suggestion but if the TTC and the City of Toronto had better public transit, I think more and more people would take advantage of it.
The bottom line is the "old might dollar" prevails! People are getting abuse, sexually assaulted, murdered, identity theft, the list goes on and on. But the city is focused on someone parked 15 min over their meter time limit or 10kmph over the speed limit!!!! Its about priorities and they seem to be in the wrong place!!!
I watch police service centre shops change tires with half tread remaining and dispose of the tires because (the units in for service and we may not see it for a bit) The wastefulness of all facets of most gov't departments is brutal!!! and that's being polite!
Maybe if they operated our tax paying services like society is making us run our business (with a tight belt) I might have more sympathy for them.
They need to take a few steps back.....get to the basics and run a police force the way it should be operated for the community not the politics!
All this politics and police crap is making me want to drink! Pass me a beer!
Your comments are ridiculous. The cops by and large are operating according to community demands. Believ it or not, the community does not want aggressive, impatient, reckless, or inept driver and riders to have carte blanche free rein on the streets.
Even so, the resources spent on parking and traffic enforcement are a pittance compared to what gets spent on major crime.
Diverting those meagre traffic and parking control resources to major crime will not stop such crime from happening, but the impact to life on the street would be tremendous. If you think drivers in the city are bad now, think what they will be like without the threat of traffic tickets or fines.
The brunt of the outcome would be especially felt by all vulnerable road users, and not just "the children" that certain posters here seem to derisively dismiss. It would also hit motorcyclists hard, some through no fault of their own, but judging by the attitudes of many here, many by their very own hand even more than they do now.
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09SV650S
Well-known member
LOOK who's comments are ridiculous now!
I NEVER said that traffic wasn't important or to not have it at all!!!! (way to take that to the extreme)
I merely said that the priorities are way out of check. There should be a balanced threat of enforcement no matter what crime or infraction is being committed.
The way you are talking on this forum makes it sound like its easier to get away with murder than it is to go straight through on Shaw between the hours of 7am-9am after committing the crime!
All I'm saying is with how much funding they are receiving, creating, asking for or whatever, the level of service from them should be high and balanced between departments.
My statement is nothing but fair as a tax paying citizen.
annnnnnnd I'm done.
There IS a balanced threat of enforcement. The clearance rate for murder and other serious crimes in this city is a hell of a lot better than it is for traffic infractions.
ive never met a person that approved of a speed trap set up during rush hour traffic.
I have never met anyone that applauded the police for their seatbelt blitz's
i dont remember anyone ever asking for police to set up traps on long weekends on the 400
traffic cops are nothing but money generating machines for the region
and when they say that its " all about safety " is a complete joke.
they couldnt care less about safety, just meeting the quota for tickets they have to write while doing a ' speed checking exercise " or a
" seat belt compliance " exercise
maybe if they spent less time harassing tax paying members of society on their way to work, and more time cleaning up the parks of bums and addicts and other lowlifes, we'd have better places to live.
but then, those guys cant really afford to pay tickets can they ? they hit up the working class, cauise THEY can pay.
That probably says more about the crowd you hang out with than anything else.
09SV650S
Well-known member
I would hope there is more traffic violations than murders. Thats an obvious statement!
You're pretty defensive about this topic. You must be a cop?
maybe a meter maid
Well, judging by the words of some here, Toronto is going to murder/rape/identitytheft hell because the cops are supposedly doing nothing but trolling for speeders.
In any case, we don't have many murders in Toronto, but the resources spent to solve those relatively few murders uses up many times more police resources than that spent on radar traps and intersection stakeouts.
Nope.
09SV650S
Well-known member
hahahah
oh and Turbodish how come when accidents do happen the traffic police are so quick to find ways to charge both drivers rather tan figure out who really was at fault?
Let me tell you why, bc they don't CARE!!!!! they earn revenue from both fines!
I was in an accident with a friends as a passenger and an old lady ran a red and hit us head on. I had to be cut out of the car. and yet my buddy was charged with failing to yield???? seriously? on a green light?
come on man! stop being sooo blind!
Can't speak to what the cop thought your friend did or didn't do, but I was in a head-on crash last fall. I didn't get charged in that one; only the other driver was charged for crossing the center line in front of me. I guess that investigating cop didn't get the same charge-em-all memo that you seem to have found. There's a few here who also managed to avoid being charged when they had single vehicle crashes. I guess their cops didn't get the memo either.
By the way, speaking of "being so blind", the cops don't earn any revenues from the fines. It all goes to local and provincial government.
Which guy is turbo? http://www.discoverychannel.ca/Showpage.aspx?sid=37462
