Photo radar ticket increase expected to boost revenue for Winnipeg police

WINNIPEG — Winnipeg police are expecting a $2.6 million increase to photo radar enforcement revenue for 2015.

The projected revenue from mobile enforcement and intersection camera tickets in 2015 is $17,252,999, while in 2014, that number was $14,600,000.

Enforcement in reduced school zones began in the fall of 2014, so 2015 is the first full school year in which enforcement took place, which police point to as the reason for the increase.

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“We saw some influence from it being introduced into the school zones, certainly construction zones play a major influence,” said Winnipeg Police Service deputy chief Danny Smyth.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "We saw some influence from it being introduced into the school zones, certainly construction zones play a major influence," said Winnipeg Police Service deputy chief Danny Smyth.

In 2015, 58,297 tickets were handed out in reduced school zones and 50,271 were handed out in all other zones, including construction zones.

However, mobile enforcement tickets have been dramatically increasing since 2012, two years before enforcement began in reduced school zones.

During that time period, mobile photo radar tickets have more than doubled from 45,735 in 2012 to 108,968 in 2015.

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Meanwhile, the number of intersection camera tickets has only increased by 9.7 per cent between 2012 and 2015.

In 2015, 39,368 were handed out for red light violations and speeding compared to 35,889 in 2012.

In total, 148,336 photo enforcement tickets were issued in 2015. In 2014, 128,820 were issued.