Ottawa police have been running afoul of the city’s automated speed cameras far more often this year, but officers rarely face any consequences when they exceed posted limits, and their union insists all the speeding is justified.
The Ottawa Police Service (OPS) reports automated speed enforcement (ASE) infractions against its officers as a form of “internal complaint” and shares data with the police services board quarterly.
In the first three months of this year, there were 75 ASE complaints, more than double the 32 reported during the same period last year.
The pace picked up from April to June. During those three months, police ASE complaints reached 165. That’s roughly seven times higher than the 23 reported during the second quarter of 2023.
The report explained the spike in ASE complaints by pointing to the increasing number of speed cameras the city has installed. There were 28 cameras in place at the end of last year. Now there are 40.
Matthew Cox, president of the Ottawa Police Association, the union representing OPS officers, said it isn’t just the number of cameras, but where they’re located. The new cameras along King Edward Avenue, for example, overlook a stretch frequently used by police officers.
He said understaffing could be another piece of the puzzle.
“Our members are going from call to call to call on a day-to-day basis, and that would be one of the reasons where they may have to speed in order to get from one call to the other,” he said.
No officers charged, union calls process fair
According to the Highway Traffic Act, speed limits do not apply to police vehicles when used “in the lawful performance of a police officer’s duties.”
But what determines whether an officer is lawfully performing those duties?
The OPS professional standards unit reviews the infractions to see whether they meet that threshold. Was the officer attending a priority call? Was the speed reasonable in the circumstances?
If so, prosecutors are asked to withdraw the charge. If not, the result is an internal complaint investigation and, perhaps, “progressive discipline.”
But that discipline seems vanishingly rare. First, no officer ever has to pay a ticket received while driving a police car, according to Cox. Tickets go to the vehicle’s owner, and that’s the service — not the officer driving.
“I don’t believe any of our members have actually been charged based on a photo radar ticket. I think that has been fair,” Cox said.
“They’ve had to justify and explain the reason that they were speeding at that specific time and that specific location,” he added. “I think they’ve been very fair at the end of the day when it comes to dealing with the tickets after the fact.”
Even when the infraction results in an internal complaint, discipline is uncommon. During the second quarter of this year, 126 driving-related complaints resulted in “no further action” against officers.
Sixteen such complaints are still being processed, while another 16 resulted in “informal discipline.”
‘You don’t always have to be lights and sirens’
The OPS report to the police services board did not describe the form of discipline, and police did not respond to a CBC request by deadline.
“There’s probably been times where the supervisor might speak to the member, but I don’t think there’s anything that’s been documented discipline,” Cox explained.
He added that some of those 16 informal discipline cases could also be red light camera violations or collisions, which are also classed as driving infractions.
Cox said there should be consequences for officers who speed if it has nothing to do with their police duties, but he said he’s unaware of any case where that has actually happened.
“You don’t always have to be lights and sirens to be responding to a call, first off, and second off, there’s opportunities where you could just be going to assist as a backup officer,” he said.
“There have been no tickets which the Ottawa police has been unable to justify the reasons that an officer was going to a call.”