Q&A - Publicising Speeding Enforcement

Q&A ImageWhy are radar locations are allowed to be broadcast on the radio road reports? I have seen, so many times, people drive slow where they know radar is, only to start speeding once they get past them. Isn't the idea of radar to catch the speeders?

When I was very junior in my service I thought exactly the same thing. However, after 25 years I know that some drivers will look at their speedometers wherever they are and slow down if they are over the limit. Others will only slow as they approach the reported position and others won't change their behaviour no matter how much advertising is done. They are the "Pick me!" drivers that will be caught regardless.

So, in my view, there is probably at least as much good in the announcement as there is bad. Hear it enough times and maybe, just maybe someone will think about the possibility of a police presence and getting caught and decide not to do whatever it was they were doing.

I was in a different frame of mind one afternoon, so I stopped my fully marked police vehicle at the side of the road, turned on my emergency lights and "hid" behind my car to run laser speed measurement. I was able to write almost as many tickets this way as I did when I used more subtle methods.

I would really like to see more police monitoring for truck drivers speeding. Too many times we have been driving on hwy 97 between Kamloops and Vernon and have witnessed how truck drivers driving big semis being right on other vehicles on the road until either the vehicle pulls over to get out of out of their way. It has happened to us and at the time we were already driving over the speed limit so either the police need to put a lower speed limit for truck drivers. I understand that driving is their job but whose life is worth taking for a job.....