Saskatoon councillor wants to arm volunteers with radar guns to curb speeding
With the City of Saskatoon not lowering residential speed limits to 40 km/h, Ward 3 Coun. David Kirton proposes a Speed Watch program.
“Basically take Neighbourhood Watch and give them a radar gun,” said Kirton, standing on the busy corner of Diefenbaker and Centennial Drives in the city’s Pacific Heights neighbourhood.
Kirton said volunteers armed with a radar gun and a camera would monitor residential areas where they believe there’s a speeding problem.
Vancouver Police and RCMP detachments have also adopted Speed Watch programs.
“They would (capture) cars going by, if they catch someone speeding on the radar they take a picture of their license plate with the camera and send that into police,” he said.
From there Kirton said police would send a letter to the registered owner of the vehicle caught speeding and warn them they are being watched. If the vehicle is spotted speeding again, police may pay the registered owner a visit.
“I think that’s pretty powerful and I think a motorist speeding in a neighborhood is probably going to slow down if they know we’re watching them and the police know what’s happening,” Kirton said.
Speed Watch also gives police a better way to track where they need to enforce, Kirton said.
This week, Kirton put forward a motion during the city’s transportation committee asking the city’s administration to look into setting up a Speed Watch program.
The city would also consult with SGI to fund the radar detectors, cameras and high-visibility vests for volunteers.
Kirton said ideally the community associations would help recruit volunteers.
“A lot of us speed inadvertently, our feet get too heavy and that’s what those speed boards do. The same thing with Speed Watch, if your foot starts to get heavy and you get a letter from the police, hopefully you’ll slow down.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
More than 115 cases of eye damage reported in Ontario after solar eclipse
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
Toxic testing standoff: Family leaves house over air quality
A Sherwood Park family says their new house is uninhabitable. The McNaughton's say they were forced to leave the house after living there for only a week because contaminants inside made it difficult to breathe.
Decoy bear used to catch man who illegally killed a grizzly, B.C. conservation officers say
A man has been handed a lengthy hunting ban and fined thousands of dollars for illegally killing a grizzly bear, B.C. conservation officers say.
B.C. seeks ban on public drug use, dialing back decriminalization
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
OPP responds to apparent video of officer supporting anti-Trudeau government protestors
The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) says it's investigating an interaction between a uniformed officer and anti-Trudeau government protestors after a video circulated on social media.
An emergency slide falls off a Delta Air Lines plane, forcing pilots to return to JFK in New York
An emergency slide fell off a Delta Air Lines jetliner shortly after takeoff Friday from New York, and pilots who felt a vibration in the plane circled back to land safely at JFK Airport.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau on navigating post-political life, co-parenting and freedom
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
Last letters of pioneering climber who died on Everest reveal dark side of mountaineering
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
Loud boom in Hamilton caused by propane tank, police say
A loud explosion was heard across Hamilton on Friday after a propane tank was accidentally destroyed and detonated at a local scrap metal yard, police say.