EDMONTON — There were far fewer tickets handed out for motorcycle noise violations in 2015, but it’s not necessarily because there was less racket.
Edmonton police handed out 175 noise violation tickets this past year, which is down from the 257 that were handed out in 2014.
Because of the significant increase in the number of fatal and serious injury collisions in the city, officers said enforcement on noisy motorcycles is down.
Right now, the EPS has a limited number of officers certified to operate the sound level meters, the majority of whom are in the Major Collision Investigation Unit. With fatal collisions up 52 per cent in 2015 over 2014, officers are simply too busy with collision investigations to devote their time to motorcycle enforcement.
It’s something police hope to change in 2016.
“We should be able to change that this year, specifically because we’ve reallocated and decentralized some of our traffic members back into patrol,” Storey said at the Edmonton Police Commission’s public meeting Thursday night.
“I will provide them the training—later on in the year here in the spring—and with that and having the instruments provided to them, they won’t be affected if our collisions continue to be on the rise.”
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In 2010, as part of a nation-wide initiative, the EPS trained 27 officers on the Quest 3M type II Sound Level Meter. The Quest 3M is the only court-approved noise-reading instrument for motorcycles.
In 2012, police handed out 223 motorcycle noise violations; 253 were handed out in 2013.