Red light cameras are supposed to act as a deterrent, but according to officials at the City of Regina, its cameras haven’t been working since 2016.
Four years ago, council approved a new set of cameras to replace the old ones and were supposed to be installed the following year, but that never happened.
“We have a committee of SGI, the police service and the City of Regina that was evaluating new technology and seeing what it looks like and what’s the best product to be used. We then went for an RFP (request for proposal) process as well, but there was a bit of a slowdown in terms of the administration doing that work,” Mayor Michael Fougere said. “That’s the part that’s not acceptable and I acknowledge that and talked to the city manager about doing better to make sure when we have a program in place, let’s use the program and get it in place.”
Fast forward to today and the four cameras are just being installed now at three of the city’s busiest intersections.
The new digital cameras are quite a bit different than the old ones, instead of a flash photo, it now records video with higher quality images.
“We hope that it will actually provide for better enforcement, better proof of an infraction and if it goes to court that it’s proven, that yes, this person had a problem and deserved the ticket,” Fougere said.
While data isn’t available for the past couple of years, the mayor said at one point the cameras did result in fewer collisions.
The cameras are being installed at the intersections of Lewvan and Dewdney, Albert Street and Parliament Avenue, and two at Albert Street and Sask. Drive. They’re expected to be up and running by mid-November.