OHTA.ca

You guys might be interested in my blog. I'm a former police officer in Ontario (traffic was my specialty) who's now going to law school to become a defence lawyer. Now I write about about a number of things including debunking police myths, traffic enforcement and providing information on new laws and legal issues. My last couple posts were about whether an officer can still give you a ticket if they don't have their hat on, whether police have to show you the number on the radar and whether police have quotas of tickets. If you're interested check it out!

Please feel free to contact me through my blog or email at simonborys@yahoo.com. I'm always looking for new ideas to write about so just tell me what you'd like to see.

I'm always looking for new ideas to write about so just tell me what you'd like to see.

We have already spoken quite loudly here. Please, if you have time, read through some of the opinions posted.

We do have 3 current officers on this board and one is a moderator.

A knowledgeable view point is always welcome.

Thanks Reflections! I've already started going through the board and replying to topics. I hope people find I have something useful to contribute.

Perhaps we should start a rant section, it has been mentioned before, and you could pull ideas from there.

Sounds like a good idea!

New post up about my own day in court. I'm sure lots of you will have opinions on this one!

Simon Borys wrote:New post up about my own day in court. I'm sure lots of you will have opinions on this one!

http://simonborys.wordpress.com

The last time I went to court I thought she was going to cry (the cop)

when the prosecutor said officer present. "no evidence"

Cheers

Viper1

Welcome aboard #2 Simon.. I was just about to post a plug for you here and then decided to see if you already posted

Haha, thanks

I've got what may be a dumb question here but I'm putting it out there any ways. Why are there speed limits (MAXIMUM) and not speed ranges. No matter where you go the speed on any given highway fluctuates. On most 400 series I'd hazard a guess of about 30 over for average highway speed on a fast day, and yet most officers will let this go if it's the general flow of traffic.

Section 132 even states that any driver will not travel at a slow enough speed as to impede traffic. Granted that the exception is that you will not go fast enough as to be a danger.

Isn't the real issue not that people are speeding, but are giving themselves no time to react at such a speed by tailgating. Why don't cops regularly enforce tailgating laws rather than speeding so that more people will learn to space themselves more safely on highways?

Would having a highway you can travel 100-120 km/h in be so bad? As well anybody who rides up the ass of another driver would be entirely likely to get a ticket?

If anyone hits anyone at 80+ km/h, someone will get hurt. Make the ones who provide no reaction time pay up. Just an idea though.

The problem with that is that people are still only concerned with the maximum. If the range was 100-120, people would treat 120 as the max and then go 30 over that. I don't see any added benefit to creating a range, since a maximum implies that you can go anything less than that and we don't really have a problem on roads in Ontario with people going too slow such that we need to set a minimum.

Also, Section 132 only applies to a person traveling under the posted speed limit and impeding traffic. So if you were going 105 on a 100 km/hr road you could not be charged under this section.

ManlyMinute wrote:Isn't the real issue not that people are speeding, but are giving themselves no time to react at such a speed by tailgating. Why don't cops regularly enforce tailgating laws rather than speeding so that more people will learn to space themselves more safely on highways? .

Push your local MPP to let us have proper unmarked cars for this....as soon as a marked car is near....everyone usually becomes angels.

And some areas I know start at 16 over (demerit point area) for enforcement.

Ok I've gotta concede that one.

But if people become angle drivers when they see marked cop cars should I not push to have more plainly visible cops on highways?

hwybear wrote:Push your local MPP to let us have proper unmarked cars for this....as soon as a marked car is near....everyone usually becomes angels.

Agreed, brother!

ManlyMinute wrote:Ok I've gotta concede that one.

But if people become angle drivers when they see marked cop cars should I not push to have more plainly visible cops on highways?

now here is own thoughts after being in traffic for over a decade.

Marked car = angels

If more cruisers/officers on roads = more cost to taxpayers to get the deterrent level needed to stop the aggressive driving.

so take an typical vehicle (say a GMC Envoy silver) and make it a traffic enforcement vehicle, kitted up with full lighting, siren and drive down the hwy, will not be long before someone follows too close or cuts through many lanes. Target vehicle gets stopped....for say 15min......500 drivers see the vehicle stopped by an Envoy. Now further down the road say 30km, another officer is in a blue Caravan and stops someone......now the drivers see that cruiser with someone pulled over.....many of us (myself included) would be leary of the next Envoy or Caravan in those colours......but keep mixing it up. I believe that would be more of a deterent than seeing a full marked car as you know where it is.

Just my last trip thru the GTR in a rental vehicle, I saw many different "aggressive" offences (outside of speed), which disrupts the "flow" of traffic that many talk about.