ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½

But the threshold for some of ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½â€™s stationary speed cameras seems to be much lower. In some locations, even one km/h over the limit appears to be enough to net drivers a nasty surprise in the form of a ticket and fine.

How do I know this? Not because the city admitted to it. But a ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ police officer and a counter clerk at an office where tickets can be paid told me so.

Speed cameras are often in the news lately, largely due to ongoing assaults on the infamous Parkside Drive camera, which has been chopped down six times in eight months. It is the most lucrative of ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½â€™s cameras, so far netting the city about $7 million in fines from more than 66,000 tickets since 2022.

My friend and colleague Dave Rider reported in the Star last weekend that ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½â€™s 150 speed cameras have been vandalized 484 times so far in 2025, an average of more than 2.5 incidents per day.

That’s an outsized amount of anger. Could part of the cause of such profound enmity be the very low threshold to trigger a ticket?

I’ve had a few myself — including one in 2024 for 7 km/h over — and recently went to an office where fines can be paid to clear them. I got there shortly after 4 p.m. and asked a ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ police officer on security duty in the lobby for directions.

He said they wouldn’t process my tickets after 4 p.m. and that I’d have to come back, but earlier in the day. We started chatting — I’ve always found most police to be friendly — and I mentioned to him that the speed cameras are deadly efficient.

“They’re not just efficient, they’re a f——— scam,â€� he told me emphatically, a second cop working with him nodding in agreement.

That got my attention.

He said he regularly talks to drivers who come to the office to pay fines for just a few kilometres over the limit, and sometimes for just one kilometre over.

I went back the next day to settle up. While talking to the counter clerk who processed my payments, I told her what the cop had told me and asked if she takes payments from people busted for driving just a few kilometres over the limit.

Every day, she said.

Even one kilometre over? Yes, she said, adding that some people are hopping mad about it.

No wonder they need two cops for security.

So I sent a note to the city’s communications staff requesting confirmation of what I had learned. Specifically, I asked how many tickets were issued in 2022, 2023 and 2024 for anywhere from 5 km/h over to one km/h over.

Here’s the reply: “The city of ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ is unable to disclose this level of detail as it would impact enforcement.â€�

Not only would they not provide any information on the specific number of tickets, they refused to confirm that any tickets had been issued for such infractions.

That begged a supplementary question. I asked them to “please tell me how disclosure of the number of tickets issued for driving one, two or three kilometres per hour over the speed limit would impact enforcement?�

The response came five days later. “The city of ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ is unable to provide data on the lower speeds as it would compromise the investigative techniques and procedures used in law enforcement.â€�

Is that dodgy or what?

So the city has dummied up and isn’t admitting to anything. That’s almost like saying it’s true. If it wasn’t, surely the city would want to demonstrate it isn’t ticketing people for driving at speeds no reasonable person would say is excessive, which amounts to a tax by another name.

I talked on the phone to a ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ police media officer, asking if it’s common practice to not ticket a driver doing less than 10 km/h over. She said it’s at the discretion of the officer.

I asked the same question in an email to police and got this reply: “Officers take many factors into account when issuing speeding tickets, including how fast a driver is going, the location where they are speeding (i.e., if a driver is over the posted speed limit on a major roadway versus a school safety zone,) etc.

“Each situation is assessed on its own, but the primary consideration is always public safety.�

It amounts to the same thing as I was told on the phone: It’s up to individual officers to decide how much is enough for a ticket.

That leaves us with no way of knowing how many tickets have been issued and fines collected for negligible speeding of less than 5 km/h over the limit, other than what I was told at the fine payment office.

So I’d like to hear from readers who got a stationary camera ticket for doing five kilometres or less over the limit. I’m particularly interested in hearing from people who were ticketed for going three, two or one kilometre over, where and when it happened and the total fine.

I suspect the cop and the counter clerk are right, and the Star’s readers can confirm it.