http://www.thewest.com.au/default.as...ContentID=8876
New plans to treble speed cameras
23rd April 2008, 6:15 WST
The State Government is considering plans to treble the number of speed cameras on WA roads, sparking warnings that the flood of extra speeding tickets will put severe pressure on police who have to process infringement notices and are already months behind.
Leaked police documents show plans to increase the number of speed cameras by 350 per cent.
In a report by PA Consulting Group, the Government has been warned that a big increase in the number of cameras and subsequent fines would push the police infringement processing department to breaking point.
The police-commissioned report, which was leaked to the State Opposition and passed to The West Australian, said there was a six-month delay between a driving offence and issuing an infringement.
But police say the delay has been reduced to 7.6 weeks.
“WA Police is facing a challenge in delivering on its road safety objectives as a result of constraints being experienced in its speeding and red light camera and traffic infringement operations,” the report said.
“Further, additional cameras are planned (an increase of 350 per cent) to achieve targeted reduction in speed and red light violations, and hence road-related deaths, placing further strain on the current operation.”
The report suggested a move to digital processing and automated back-office processes and that “involving the private sector in part or all of the service provision” could provide the required level of service at a lower cost.
Opposition Leader Troy Buswell urged the Government to spell out its intentions with speed cameras.
“The Government needs to come clean over a) the outsourcing of speed cameras and b) will that outsourcing require an increase in the number of speed cameras to make that outsourcing commercially attractive?” he said.
“If that is the case, it will confirm what a lot of people have suspected for a long time and that is that speed cameras are about revenue as much, if not more, than they are about safety.”
Last September, The West Australian reported that WA Police were investigating handing over speed camera operations to a private company, with police saying there had been problems with infringement management and that it was not “the core business of the police”.
This month it also emerged that the Office of Road Safety was considering a 2006 Government-commissioned report that recommended an increase in speed camera infringements from about 440,000 to more than two million a year from new speed cameras.
Police Minister John Kobelke said the final evaluation was part of information being considered by the Office of Road Safety’s Enhanced Speed Enforcement Steering Committee.
A draft report is due mid-year.
BEATRICE THOMAS
