Traffic enforcement changes coming to Red Deer amidst provincial photo radar changes

In Red Deer, Municipal Policing Services Superintendent Peter Puszka says there are about 43 photo radar locations throughout the city and about 140 or so more in school and playground zones.

While the province will still allow ATE in these zones, Red Deer will be working toward phasing those out by the April deadline as well, as the City was already intending to move toward more traditional, boots-on-the-ground enforcement.

Drivers won’t see changes to photo radar locations on provincial highways within the city limits just yet, but Puszka hopes that by early January 2025 they will have the officers needed to begin removing traffic corridor enforcement, as outlined by the province.

“The intersection safety device cameras will remain in place, but we’ll be shutting down the speed-on-green in January or early February as well,” he adds.

In August, Red Deer city council received a report comparing the effectiveness of ATE and CPO enforcement and in September, approved the addition of four CPO’s for this purpose.

Puszka explains that a pilot was conducted in the spring of 2024 to inform this report, and it found that officers could issue a comparable amount of tickets to photo radar cameras, but with a greater variety of infractions within those.

“The camera sitting in the truck was only picking up the registered owner as the speeder and they weren’t finding the other offences,” he says. “We saw that it was a benefit to the community and making our community a safer place by doing conventional enforcement.”

An officer pulling someone over for speeding in a school zone has the potential to uncover expired registration, a lack of insurance, impaired driving, driving while under a suspension, or other infractions in addition to the speeding, Puszka explains.

While the province called ATE a “cash cow” in its announcement, that hasn’t been the case in the City of Red Deer.

“Taking in the Automated Traffic Enforcement program, looking at the speed-on-green, the red light tickets through the intersection and then those photo radar trucks, we’ve actually been operating over the last three years at a net loss,” Puszka comments.

Transitioning to an officer-focused model should have a net effect on the budget, he says, as the City was already paying for people to run the photo radar trucks.

But, he reminds, the priority is safety, not revenues, when it comes to these programs anyways.

“When you look at the policing aspect of it all, and if you take a step back and look at it holistically, the City of Red Deer contributes largely to the RCMP budget and they don’t expect any revenue back. It’s more about keeping the community safe and providing that public safety for all, and it’s not about making money, no matter what.”

by Ashley Lavallee-Koenig

Traffic enforcement changes coming to Red Deer amidst provincial photo radar changes

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