Though fewer tickets were written in 2019, Foothills Patrol is putting it in the books as a successful year.
Protective services co-ordinator Darlene Roblin said it was a challenging year but the officers worked hard to improve services and undergo training.
An active shared service agreement with the Town of High River has made an impact on Foothills Patrol, putting additional demand on administrative and supervisory staff, she said.
“It’s been very busy for the frontline officers but also for supervisors and our admin support staff who are working really hard,” said Roblin.
In addition, one officer pursued a career with Calgary Police Service, leaving Foothills Patrol short-staffed for about six months, she said. In the meantime, the investigations and complaints increased by 13 per cent, and with one less officer to share the load there was less active patrolling time out in the municipality, she said.
The result was a 39 per cent decrease in the number of tickets issues in 2019 over 2018. There was a total of 902 tickets issued, for a total fine amount of $256,659, which was $154,129 less than the previous year, she said.
Those statistics do not include the 33 tickets that were mandatory court appearances, she said.
“Those could be for things such as driving without insurance, speeding tickets where the speed is more than 50km over the posted limit,” said Roblin. “Provincial legislation dictates, in certain instances and for certain offences that it is a mandatory court appearance.”
She said some of those offences could result in hefty fines, such as $2,875 for not producing insurance.
The vast majority of tickets written were for speeding (706), which Roblin said has been a constant since she began working for the County. There were nine additional tickets for speeding in a construction zone and four for speeding past an emergency vehicle with its lights on.
“We do try to work with our public works folks through the summer, spring and fall months when they’re out working on our roads to provide them some assistance and try to slow traffic down,” said Roblin.
The highest clocked speed was someone driving 168 km/h on Highway 799, she said, and the highest over the posted limit was a driver travelling 140 km/h, which was 90 km/h over the posted limit in a 50km/h construction zone.
“That puts everybody at risk – our staff are out there doing their job and are doing a really good job of putting proper signage up to warn people, to give them adequate room to slow down, and yet we’re seeing speed like this,” said Roblin.
On the bylaw side of things, Foothills Patrol issued 28 tickets for violations. She said the most common calls are regarding the dog ownership bylaw and community standards bylaw.
She said on bylaw matters the ticket is the last resort – officers always try to work toward compliance first.
“Going to a ticket on a bylaw matter is not usually the first avenue we want to go down, with the exception of if you’ve got a dog that’s bitten somebody, you’re very likely going to get charged with that right away,” said Roblin.
She said on bylaw matters, officers will always start with education and a warning, in case people didn’t know about a particular bylaw. The landowner will be provided with information and asked for compliance.
After the timeframe given – anywhere from a week to one month, depending on the scale of clean-up or change required – officers will return to the property, she said.
“If we go back after we’ve made the verbal request for compliance and we have not got compliance coming forward, at that point we will move to remedial order community standards,” said Roblin.
Out of 902 total tickets issued, there were only 58 not-guilty pleas, which she said speaks to the professionalism of Foothills officers.
People will tend to enter a not-guilt plea when they feel the officer was heavy-handed or disrespectful, or if someone feels they’ve been treat improperly, she said.
“So when you’re looking at the six per cent of tickets being disputed, that’s an excellent statistic to keep an eye on,” said Roblin. “As a supervisor I’m really happy with that particular statistic, that our not-guilty rate remains under 10 per cent. I think that’s a good reflection on the work that’s being done.”
In addition to responding to complaints and doing enforcement, Roblin said Foothills Patrol officers try to spend a lot of time engaging with the public.
They can be found at most community events, interacting with residents and providing a positive public presence, she said. It also gives them an opportunity to educate residents and receive feedback or hear about concerns they might have.
“I feel it’s really important our officers take the time to work with our community members at events,” said Roblin. “We get a lot of public interaction at these community events, and it is fun for the officers to engage on that level with the public as well.”
