关于警察出席交通法庭状况...

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Traffic court roulette
PHINJO GOMBU AND JOHN DUNCANSON
STAFF REPORTERS

Sixty-three per cent of Toronto officers scheduled for traffic court don't show up, resulting in thousands of tickets being tossed out every year, police Chief Bill Blair says, acknowledging a "systemic" problem in the force.
The startling admission from the head of Canada's largest police service, which writes almost a quarter of the province's traffic tickets, came in response to a Toronto Star investigation into the province's traffic court system.
The chief's numbers for police no-shows is even higher than those discovered in a Star survey of two of Toronto's busiest traffic courts — Old City Hall and Scarborough.
In total, over five days, 263 tickets were fought by drivers in court. Of these, 113, or 43 per cent, were withdrawn because officers didn't show up in court.
The Star also analyzed a database of 2.7 million Highway Traffic Act tickets issued across Ontario in 2002 and 2003. This showed that Toronto — and most GTA municipalities — have dramatically higher rates of traffic tickets being withdrawn at court compared to the rest of the province.
In Toronto the withdrawal rate was 40 per cent.
In York Region, the rate was 49 per cent. York Region Police Chief Armand LaBarge blames a shortage of justices of the peace for his force's ticket withdrawal rate — the highest in the province.
"This is an issue we are very well familiar with and an issue we have been trying to deal with as a systemic issue ... for some time," Blair said in an interview this week.
The city is already struggling to collect on a growing debt of $50 million in unpaid traffic and insurance-related fines from convicted drivers.
Toronto collects about $35 million a year from driving-related offences.
Blair said "operational" needs for policing a big city like Toronto often require officers to be excused from attending traffic court. [ 相约加拿大:枫下论坛 www.rolia.net/forum ]
Decisions to exempt officers from attending court are sometimes made 30 minutes before a case is heard, he said.
He also cited a shortage of justices of the peace, which compounds court backlogs that currently mean waits of up to a year before a case gets to trial.
Unlike criminal court, Highway Traffic Act cases are never adjourned.
If an officer doesn't show up, the municipal prosecutor has no choice but to withdraw any tickets issued.
And in Toronto, Blair points out, drivers contest their tickets at a much higher rate than other Ontario municipalities.
"We see the pressure in both directions," he said.
About 46 per cent of ticketed Toronto motorists contest their tickets in court, Ministry of the Attorney General figures show.
In York Region it's 26 per cent, and in Peel 30 per cent. London, Hamilton and Ottawa are around 11 per cent.
The Star obtained the database of Highway Traffic Act tickets issued across Ontario, the Integrated Court Offences Network, through a freedom of information request.
To determine withdrawal rates, the Star focused on cases where a motorist was issued a single ticket and decided to fight it. This was done to prevent plea bargaining — instances in multiple ticket cases where one or more is withdrawn in exchange for a guilty plea on another — from skewing the results.
The data obtained didn't include bylaw and insurance-related charges — a relatively small number of offences — that could be part of a plea bargain and affect withdrawal rates to a minor degree.
The Star's methodology was reviewed by Professor Michael Friendly, a statistician at York University, who found the findings statistically significant.
In the GTA, drivers fighting a single ticket stood a nearly 2 in 5 chance of having a charge withdrawn by a prosecutor in court. In Ottawa, it was 1 in 5, in Hamilton 1 in 10 and in London, 1 in 50. Across Ontario, excluding the GTA, the chances were about 1 in 10.
The traffic court system, unlike the criminal courts, is a revenue generator.
Responsibilities are split between the province, which tracks and punishes bad drivers, and the municipalities, which collect most of the money. ＜ r o l i a. n e t ＞
But the Star investigation reveals the system is fragile, relying heavily on drivers not fighting their tickets and just paying their fines. Across Ontario, 43 per cent of tickets are resolved this way without getting to court. In Greater Toronto it's 32 per cent.
"Officer no-shows is the number one reason why charges are withdrawn."
Barry Randell, Toronto's top court official
The pressures are greatest in Toronto where only a quarter of ticketed drivers pay their fines without a fight.
Court officials quietly worry that if more people chose to fight their tickets, the heavily backlogged system would collapse. It would take more court time, more staff and require more police to show up for trial.
The data analyzed by the Star didn't indicate why tickets are thrown out.
The city of Toronto has been doing its own tracking of police attendance for about a year.
"Officer no-shows is the number one reason why charges are withdrawn," said Barry Randell, Toronto's top court official, adding it's a huge drag on the resources of an already overburdened court system.
Blair stresses that most officers who don't show up in court have been authorized to do so.
"Our officers want to go to court and contest the file but they are being excused by supervisors" to do other policing work, the chief says.
All Ontario police are mandated to appear in court as part of their duties under the Police Services Act. Those who skip court without permission can be charged with neglect of duty and docked up to six days' pay.
Blair and his officials say that hasn't happened often in Toronto. Only one police officer was convicted in the past two years for failing to appear for court.
Blair said that while he's concerned about lost revenue because of tickets being withdrawn, he stresses his primary concern is keeping the roads safe.
Police issue tickets because they want to change driver behaviour, he said.
"It's not just the tickets," said Blair. "Drivers have to know there are consequences. That's the part we are trying to address." { 枫下论坛 www.rolia.net/forum }
Discussions, he said, have begun with city officials about how to address a "systemic" problem of reconciling court scheduling and every day policing pressures.
A pilot project involving officers attending night court on overtime —after their regular shifts — has shown that officer attendance can increase along with convictions.
But that program, which began last year, is under threat because of the shortage of justices of the peace.
Now police are looking at ways to pay officers overtime to go to court during the day. It's an issue expected to be discussed at Toronto City Council and the Police Services Board in the next two months.
The bill the city will get, if approved by the police board, is about $1.2 million — money Blair said will be well worth it.
He said he doesn't believe the city will turn down his request for more money to pay officers overtime for traffic court.
Blair also hopes that better court attendance will change a perception that tickets can be easily beaten in Toronto.
"The perception in Toronto is that if you get a traffic ticket, fight it. When officers don't show up you win," Blair said.
In York Region, which has the highest withdrawal rate in the province, La Barge says officer no-shows are not the problem.
The Star's findings, he said, "underscore the critical issue that we have been struggling with in York Region ... for the past three or four years, and that is lack of justices of the peace."
La Barge said his own numbers show that only 10 per cent of officers scheduled to attend traffic court don't show up.
The vast majority are withdrawn because of the lack of judicial resources and growing backlogs.
York shares court resources with neighbouring municipalities. Court officials say they are 13 JPs short of the 55 they need.
York police attendance in court made headlines last year when Mayor Michael Di Biase beat three tickets for running red lights, two of which involved collisions. Charges were withdrawn in two cases because officers didn't show up, while the third ticket got lost in the system.
In 2003, La Barge said, the police no-show rate was around 19 per cent, a number that has since been cut in half. ＜ 相约加拿大 ROLIA.NET ＞
"A very exhaustive review of the process was done," La Barge said. "We now have one of the most stringent court attendance requirement of any police service in Canada."