Speeding raced to the top in regards to tickets issued by Foothills County peace officers.
“Speeding is by far the most common ticket that we are issuing,” said Sgt. Darlene Roblin Protective Services co-ordinator for Foothills Patrol. “Our total number of violation tickets, which was 1,492, 1,298 were for speeding.”
She presented the 2018 Foothills Protective Services review to County councillors at their public meeting March 6 in High River.
The County also issued 49 mandatory court appearance tickets for speeding.
“Those would deal with speeding offences where the speed is more than 50 km/h over the posted speed limit — high-end speeding,” Roblin said.
Foothills County peace officers do not work on one or two-digit primary highways, such as Highways 2, 2A, 7, 23, or 22.
But motorists are unwisely choosing to step on the gas in the more rural areas.
“The fastest vehicle we found in 2018 was doing 230 km/h and that was on Highway 540, just south of High River. That’s a 130 km/h more that the posted limit on the road.”
The scenic 540, which connects Highway 2 to Highway 22 near the Bar U, is a popular road for Andretti wannabees. Twenty-five of the 49 tickets issued for 50km/m or more over the speed limit were on 540.
“We are having a lot of significantly high speed on that road,” Roblin said. “We also saw significant speed on Dunbow Road, Tongue Creek… We had 11 different roads where we had speeding across the county. It’s problematic.”
Although approximately 72 per cent of the funds from tickets go back to the County, Roblin insists peace officers’ priority is not building Foothills coffers.
Safety is the issue.
“When we have 49 events — that we found — of people going 50km/h over the limit, that tells us we have a speed issue in the county,” she said. “Our officers are dealing with speeds that are in the realm of becoming a public safety issue for other motorists and including the driver who is speeding.”
The County also dealt with a charge under the Animal Protective Act which resulted in significant man-hours — but the work saved one of man’s best friend.
A dog was tied up for four days to a telephone post in the very northwest of the county in May.
“No food, no water, no shelter,” Roblin said. “Our officers through their investigation were able to track down the owner of that animal. It was on a foot-long leash in the middle of nowhere. We ended up laying charges under the Animal Protection Act.”
She said the individual, who was from Calgary, was given a $5,000 fine and is not allowed to own a dog for seven years. The dog was taken to Heaven Can Wait and is now safe at a home.
Protective Services also handled 19 municipal bylaw infractions – which may seem like a small amount but plenty of steps are taken before a ticket is issued.
“When we do bylaw enforcement we are trying to work with the community to achieve compliance,” Roblin said. “All 19 were related to dogs.” (The incident involving the dog tied up for four days is not a municipal bylaw infraction but falls under the harsher provincial Animal Protection Act.)
Most of the infractions were dogs running at large, however there were three charges involving dogs killing other domestic animals.
It wasn’t all tickets and enforcement for County officers. They also participate in community events such as helping with the Millarville Run to the Market, a Cayley bike rodeo, the Millarville School Walkathon, the Okotoks and High River charity check stops, to name a few.
Foothills Protective Services also works closely with the three rural crime watch associations in the area.
It is also providing contract work to the Town of High River. The statistics provided by Roblin did not include High River violations.
