CHARLES TWEED
Ponoka County Department of Public Safety and Enforcement gave its annual report to county council Feb. 23 and the numbers show peace officers are writing more tickets than ever before.
Sgt. Don Ahlquist presented a summary of offences the department dealt with in 2010.
The statistics represent actual tickets issued and do not include warnings, assist to public or traffic control services.
In 2010, peace officers wrote 980 tickets, with the majority of tickets being issued for speeding.
Just fewer than 50 per cent of all tickets for the year were issued for drivers with a heavy foot —459.
Keeping the roads safe was a priority, as 169 tickets were written for traffic control incidents and another 150 for equipment and weights offences.
The tickets were spread throughout the county, with the majority being issued on secondary highways.
Elkhorn had the highest specific area of offences, 110.
The total number of tickets written has drastically increased since hiring a second man more than a year ago, Ahlquist said.
In 2008, the department handed out 168 tickets, two years later the total has risen to 980 — a 583 per cent increase.
Despite the increase the program has been received well by the general public.
“Since the inception of our service in 2004, it’s conservatively estimated we have dealt with between 15,000 and 20,000 interactions with the public — We have received one written complaint by proper definition during this report period and approximately six verbal complaints, most of which were found to be frivolous,” said Ahlquist. “We intend to keep this number low — complaints are most often a personal problem and not necessarily a personnel problem. It’s remarkable that we’ve only had a few complaints.”
Coun. George Veheire said he supported the program 100 per cent and didn’t want to see any impediments from allowing the department from doing their job.
“I appreciate the work you guys are doing, you’re out there, you’re visible, you do the job. But there is talk in the trucking community industry, you come into the county of Ponoka, just phone the county office, if you get a ticket and it will be dealt with,” said Veheire. “I don’t appreciate that sort of thing, if you guys write a ticket, stand by them.”
Council did recognize the fact new bodies had joined the program and thought it would be helpful to hold a meeting to discuss the department’s philosophy to make sure everyone ‘was on the same page.’
Ahlquist identified a few goals for 2011.
School bus safety, operation of agricultural vehicle safety, gravel haul safety and dangerous goods hauls all made the list of areas the department will be focusing on in the calendar year.
Council also heard a year-end report from Fire Chief Ted Dillon and was introduced to new Staff Sgt. Cameron Chisholm with the Ponoka RCMP.