It’s pedal to the metal with an administrative penalty system for Barrie’s automated speed enforcement (ASE) camera program.
Council gave final approval Wednesday night to the system, which will save money, as it costs the city $17 to process an ASE speeding ticket compared to $55 in the traditional court system.
Mayor Alex Nuttall said the ASE camera program is working on city streets, too.
“Based on the results that we’ve seen, reduction of speeds results in a safer community and that’s what we’re after,” he said. “The dollars associated seem to get the headlines, but being safer for kids going to school is what matters at the end of the day.”
Every 40,000 violations issued would cost the city $680,000 to process in the administrative penalty system, while it would cost $2.2 million in a traditional court — resulting in approximately $1.52 million in savings for the city.
More than 9,200 ASE tickets were processed for the initial three months of Barrie’s speed cameras program, which began Dec. 1, 2023.
Rodger Bates, the city’s manager of court services, has said that number had climbed to at least 13,000 speeding tickets by the end of March.
As part of the administrative penalty system, council also approved a motion that the city hire two screening officers/junior prosecutors, funded by ASE revenue, and staff report back to general committee regarding any additional resource requirements due the volume of violations to be processed.
“Last week, we had a discussion on whether 40,000 violations was the magic number or not and it just seems that there is not enough data available right now to say that is the number,” said Coun. Gary Harvey. “All it’s doing is putting a pause on these additional automatic hires every 40,000 violations (speeding tickets).”
This ends the further authorization to hire one officer per additional 40,000 speed violations issued in Barrie. The clause that there would be an annual staff memo to council to go along with any proposed hirings was also removed.
City staff will also issue a request for proposals to retain hearing officer services, for as much as $50,000, again funded by ASE revenue.
Approval of the administrative penalty system also includes renovating the city’s Cedar Pointe Drive offices, costing $100,000, for the screening and hearing officers required for the program. This would be funded from the city’s tax capital reserve, but eventually repaid from additional revenue in the city’s operating budget.
ASE is a system that uses a camera and a speed-measuring device to detect and capture images of the licence plates of vehicles travelling faster than the posted speed limit in school or community safety zones.
Barrie’s ASE cameras were located eastbound on Big Bay Point Road near Willow Landing and St. Michael the Archangel Catholic elementary schools, and southbound on Anne Street North, near Portage View and Nouvelle-Alliance schools, last Dec. 1.
The ASE cameras were moved to northbound Essa Road near Timothy Christian School, and westbound on Ardagh Road in the vicinity of Heritage Baptist Church, near the end of February.
ASE cameras nailed 9,240 vehicles for speeding at the first two Barrie locations, with an average ticket fine of $90, from Dec. 1, 2023 until Feb. 18, 2024, says a city memo. It also says 4,563 speeding tickets were issued on Big Bay Point Road and 4,677 on Anne Street North.
The same city memo also says cameras in the first two locations were successful in significantly reduced speeding there, when compared to the use of flashing 40-km/h lights. During peak school hours speeds were reduced by 12 km/h at the Big Bay Point Road location and 13 km/h at the Anne Street location. This reduction is compared to speeds during peak school hours when the flashing 40 km/h lights were in use.
