海角社区官网

But there have been literally hundreds of incidents of vandalism this year 鈥� , or more than three per day. Sixteen cameras were cut down in just one night and three more bit the dust over the weekend, the city tells me. That now-famous camera on Parkside Drive has been toppled seven times now.

So if it鈥檚 so serious and it keeps happening, often in exactly the same place, why on earth haven鈥檛 the cops and the city done anything about it so far? At this point the police are looking foolish, baffled by a crime repeatedly committed under their noses, and the city is looking feckless 鈥� talking tough but getting nothing done.

Back in July, the city said it was working with police and the company that owns and operates the cameras 鈥� Redflex Traffic Systems (Canada), a subsidiary of a giant American transportation firm called 鈥� on ways to prevent further vandalism. They said exactly the same thing this week.

They鈥檙e 鈥渃ontinuing to work鈥� on solutions 鈥� including things like putting up more remote cameras to catch vandals in the act and using 鈥渟tronger poles鈥� that would be harder to chop down.

These are painfully obvious ideas. You can buy for $69 on Amazon, so every speed camera in the city could be monitored from multiple angles without breaking the bank. So you have to wonder why nothing has actually been done.

Maybe it鈥檚 because the city isn鈥檛 being hit in the pocketbook. amounting to $36.2 million through 2029 for installation and maintenance of 150 speed cameras. The company, not the city, is on the hook for fixing vandalized cameras.

But the city can鈥檛 wash its hands of this. Automated cameras, as has been demonstrated in independent studies, do reduce traffic speed and make roads safer 鈥� as irritating as some drivers find them. Faraz Gholizadeh, who鈥檚 been campaigning for reduced speeds on Parkside Drive, makes the point that the city is ultimately responsible. 鈥淚t may not be their cameras,鈥� he told me, 鈥渂ut it鈥檚 their roads.鈥�

Or, perhaps, there may be little action because police don鈥檛 really take this problem seriously, despite their public statements. It鈥檚 just traffic after all, and until those 16 cameras were cut down last week the whole thing might have seemed like a sideshow.

Plus some cops clearly share the antipathy to the cameras that many drivers have. Back in July Star columnist Jack Lakey quoted a couple of them calling speed cameras 鈥渁 f—-ing scam.鈥�

That was based on the notion that they ding motorists going even slightly over the posted speed limit. Matt Elliott effectively debunked that idea in a terrific column in the Star over the weekend in which he crunched the numbers and showed the much-abused Parkside Drive camera nabs only a fraction of speeders. It鈥檚 far from the 鈥渃ash grab鈥� it鈥檚 accused of being.

Or maybe the lack of urgency to fix this problem can be traced to the irresponsible rhetoric coming from our premier. Doug Ford calls speed cameras and says cities should remove them 鈥渙r I鈥檓 going to help them get rid of them very shortly.鈥� He might as well have said to the 海角社区官网vandals: 鈥淕o ahead. I鈥檝e got your back.鈥�

Vaughan quickly fell into line, voting on Monday to shut down its speed camera program. Maybe police see the writing on the wall and expect 海角社区官网to follow suit 鈥� or be ordered to by a premier who鈥檚 quite prepared to meddle in local issues when it fits his own agenda.

Regardless of the reason, it鈥檚 a sorry situation. A group, or groups, of vigilante vandals are flouting the law and making our streets just a bit less safe. The people in charge, meanwhile, are talking a good line but doing not much to stop them.