Traffic tickets down, police commissioner concerned about enforcement

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As tires begin to claw back some grip on Queen City Streets, traffic cops are going to be keeping a closer eye on how those tires behave.

That much was clear from comments made during and after Regina’s Board of Police Commissioners’ meeting, held at City Hall on Tuesday.

A monthly statistical breakdown provided by police to the board shows traffic tickets issued in the city are down 25.6 per cent, year-to-date.

“We have seen some some real challenges in terms of response to the calls for service that that we’ve been getting,” Regina Police Service Chief Evan Bray told media following the meeting.

He said officers have been tied up with things like overdose and suicide calls. As such, traffic officers have been asked to step up their response to things like collision scenes, resulting in less time spent on traffic enforcement.

This change was made in November of 2021 to free up patrol officers, who may normally have been dispatched to things like collisions.

“As a result, you see a decline in those in those numbers.”

But starting in April, the traffic unit will be moving back toward more of an enforcement focus, he said.

During the meeting, commissioner Lori Bresciani raised a question about whether residents in “newer areas” might see more police in their neighbourhoods.

She noted that the type of calls coming from varying neighbourhoods may differ, “but a call is a call to police.”

Bray said officers assigned to certain areas of the city can often be pulled into others for calls of higher priority, but said a review is occurring to reconsider the boundaries of patrol areas. Further, new officers have been hired but are still being trained before being fully deployed.

Once these officers are deployed he said citizens “will actually reap the benefits of quicker response times to those non-priority calls.”

Bresciani went on to say the city has seen a “huge increase” in stunting and racing, and was looking for clarification on how the issue was being handled.

Bray said traffic units have a difficult time focusing on a single issue when they’re constantly being called away to other work.

However, the chief said the force is hoping to receive some funding from SGI to allow traffic officers to do special project enforcement.

“Typically we’ll use that in the spring of each year, just before summer, to try and nip some of these these problems in the bud, so that they don’t grow into something much bigger.”

bharder@postmedia.com

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