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By rdnewsNOW staff

Move from ATE

Municipal Policing Services reports on progress made in transition to new traffic enforcement model

May 21, 2025 | 1:57 PM

Red Deer city council was presented a report from Municipal Policing Services this week on the progress made on the new traffic enforcement model led by Community Peace Officers.

The report, which was presented to council on Tuesday, says MPS transitioned from Mobile Photo Radar Enforcement under the Automated Traffic Enforcement (ATE) program to an enhanced traffic enforcement model in 2024.

The move was made after council asked for a report in September 2024 demonstrating how traffic safety improvement would reduce expenses by moving to conventional enforcement.

They later approved the transition in November as part of the 2025 budget, which led to the formation of a dedicated traffic enforcement team.

In December 2024, Municipal Policing Services (MPS) began its recruiting process and four internal Community Peace Officers were selected.

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This resulted in MPS management backfilling these positions with two new hires with two more currently undergoing security clearance. The Community Peace Officers Traffic Unit is expected to be fully staffed by the end of June.

The CPO’s were sent out on a preliminary deployment in late January 2025 with one CPO per shift, seven days a week. They were dedicated to traffic enforcement, and they say the initiative has been impactful.

As of now, the CPO Traffic Unit has worked with the RCMP Traffic Unit on six projects dedicated to speed and excessive noise.

As a result, 134 tickets were handed out in January, 243 in February, 293 in March, and 277 in April.

One of their biggest days came on Family Day when a traffic operation with all CPOs on shift led to 74 violation tickets.

“This outcome underscores the value of realtime, on-site enforcement compared to delayed, camera-based citations,” as stated in the report.

The transition came after the Government of Alberta on Dec. 1, 2024, introduced several policy changes to the ATE program, effective April 1, 2025. These changes prevent the use of ATE on all provincial highways. The ATE speed enforcement is restricted to school zones, playground zones, and construction zones.

As a result, photo radar was removed from Gaetz Avenue and 51 Avenue, as well as on 67 street as they were considered as numbered highway connectors to provincial highways 2A and 11.

Furthermore, because of the policy, the Speed on Green function was disabled on Feb. 24, 2025 and the five ISDs on Highway 2A along Gaetz and 51 Avenues were shut down on April 1. Currently the five remaining ISDs will continue to operate.

The mobile photo radar enforcement operations were adjusted on Feb. 24 to focus solely on schools and playgrounds. As a result, various contracted photo radar employees have resigned. Enforcement hours will also continue to be adjusted until the contract is terminated, which is expected to happen once CPO staffing is complete.