Ottawa police are rolling out new district traffic units to address growing concerns over speeding and road safety across the city. Read MoreRolling out this week, a new team of five officers will patrol parts of the city where speeders and high-risk drivers are prevalent.
Rolling out this week, a new team of five officers will patrol parts of the city where speeders and high-risk drivers are prevalent.
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Ottawa police are rolling out new district traffic units to address growing concerns over speeding and road safety across the city.
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Starting this week, each district will be staffed with a sergeant and four constables, with plans to build up to seven constables to patrol high-risk streets and to respond to community complaints.
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These new units are part of the broader shift to a district policing structure and were announced by Chief Eric Stubbs at last week’s city council meeting.
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The policing strategy focuses on building trust and reducing crime in shared responsibility with the community, not just enforcement, Stubbs said.
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The Evening Citizen
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Stubbs emphasized that, while speed cameras had been a useful tool in the past, the weight of addressing traffic safety now rested entirely on the police resources available. The Ontario government banned the use of speed cameras in November.
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Stubbs said community feedback, gathered from residents and city councillors, played a key role in determining where these new units were most needed.
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Supt. Ken Bryden, who works within the Neighbourhood Policing Directorate, is responsible for overseeing the new traffic units. He said the units would work closely with neighbourhood and front-line officers to ensure that their efforts were strategically focused on areas with the most pressing needs.
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“Those areas will remain priorities for us as police even though there are no cameras there,” Bryden said.
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From the data received from the public through the “#residentsmatter” campaign, Bryden said, it was not difficult to identify what was a priority for each district.
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He said traffic offences happened across the city, but certain offences were more prevalent in some districts than others.
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In the downtown core, issues such as distracted driving and drivers ignoring red lights and traffic signs are more common. In the rural and suburban areas, there are more cases of stunt driving and racing.
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The announcement came just a month after the city lost use of its automated speed cameras. River Ward Coun. Riley Brockington highlighted the rising issue of speeding, saying the absence of cameras had worsened the problem.
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“Speeding has become an epidemic. Night-time racing is especially out of control in the summer months, and modified vehicles that disturb the peace need to be addressed,” Brockington said. “I welcome any new resources to help address these ongoing issues on our roads.”