Re: "Good, honest speeders being targeted by police" in The Citizen, Sept. 2.
The Prince George Detachment is (of course) responsible for enforcing a wide variety of laws within our area of jurisdiction. It has been my experience that none of those laws generate as much interest from the public as traffic laws. The police do not set speed limits, but we must enforce them otherwise no one would bother following the rules of the road. Imagine a society like that.
Throughout the year, our Traffic Enforcement Section conducts enforcement campaigns at many locations throughout the community. These locations are sometimes chosen as a result of statistics, however most are chosen because of a high demand from the public. Our Otway Road campaign was one of those. We have received complaints from the public about speeding along Otway Road and one of those came after a dog was struck and killed.
Before this speed campaign began, our Citizen Patrol volunteers spent time with a speed reader board along that stretch of road. The highest speed was 105 in a 50 zone. Drivers could see their speed as they drove by. During the speed campaign, we issued 30 speeding tickets and most of those were for persons travelling closer to (or over) 90 km/h in the 50 zone. Even if they were travelling 70, that is 40 per cent more than the posted speed limit and an increased risk to other users of the road like cyclists, walkers and drivers. Many of those ticketed are likely honest, good people, but they violated the law in that moment. They made a choice to ignore the speed.
As for the graffiti comment, it actually is more of a priority to enforce traffic laws than investigate vandalism after the fact. Traffic offences sometimes cost lives and cause far greater harm than spray paint.
Lastly, I would like to clarify that police forces throughout this province, and likely the country, do not receive the revenues from traffic tickets. It's a provincial fine, so the revenue goes to the provincial government. We don't do our job to profit or pick on good people. We do it to help people and to save lives.
Cpl. Craig Douglass
Prince George RCMP
