More answers needed on speeding Toronto police cars: city councillors

Several city councillors say it's important for the Toronto Police Service (TPS) to 'get to the bottom of' how many automated speeding or red light camera tickets its officers get – and how many have no lawful excuse.

Several city councillors say it's important for the Toronto Police Service (TPS) to "get to the bottom of" how many automated speeding or red light camera tickets its officers get – and how many have no lawful excuse.

Toronto-Danforth Coun. Paula Fletcher says she was "flummoxed" by the CTV News story that unearthed pictures of police vehicles speeding or running red lights, and said the TPS has to come clean on which of them are justified and which are not.

"How many of those tickets are legitimate because they are going to an emergency, and how many were just because there was sloppy driving or speeding? I don't see why the public should pay for sloppy driving or speeding because nobody pays for my ticket," Fletcher said in an interview.

City data shows that, in 26 months, TPS vehicles were issued 1,038 speeding tickets and 164 red light tickets. The police force produced copies of 435 tickets in response to a freedom of information request CTV News made in 2021.

Some tickets appear to include snapshots of emergencies in progress, when police are legally allowed to break traffic rules during their duties, including one case of a police car following an ambulance through an intersection.

But others are less clear, including a special constable car ticketed for speeding outside a school during pickup. Several speeding tickets were also issued to TPS parking enforcement vehicles, which typically do not need to speed to ticket-parked cars.

In one case, a parking enforcement vehicle was ticketed $227.50 for going 65 km/h in a 40 km/h zone. The same vehicle received another ticket for $95 two days later for going 45 km/h in a 30 km/h zone.