The Department of Police and Emergency Management continues to investigate measures to progress the budget savings strategy.

To realise a more efficient speed camera regime, civilian operators will be replaced by sworn officers and automatic mode arrangements.

The anticipated savings from this decision is $800,000 each year commencing in the 2012-2013 financial year.

The 11 civilian camera operators have been assisted with employment options through the DPEM and government vacancy management processes.  To date, four positions are vacant and will not be filled, 2 operators will be redeployed, 4 have accepted redundancies and 1 position remains undecided.  (Those positions are 3 from Western District, 3 from Northern District, 3 from Eastern District and 2 from Southern District.)

“Road safety is a core function of policing and it’s entirely appropriate that uniformed officers will assume control of speed camera operations,” said Assistant Commissioner Donna Adams.

“Police officers are able to respond to high speed incidents where civilian operators cannot and this approach is consistent with our policy of high visibility policing to reduce serious and fatal crashes,” said Ms Adams.

Tasmania Police has a deployment strategy for speed cameras, which provides the Districts with options which include the possibility of using the cameras on “automatic mode” without the need for an operator at all times.

“The deployment of speed cameras in each District is strategic, targeting serious and fatal crash zones, and that will continue regardless of whether cameras are operated by a police officer or in automatic mode.”

Speed enforcement isn’t just about using speed cameras; it’s about a whole range of strategies and a whole range of different equipment to maximise road safety outcomes.

Our road safety initiatives include:

• The clamping and confiscation of vehicles belonging to dangerous or reckless drivers.
• 16 high visibility police vehicles and replacing the markings on the entire uniformed fleet with a more reflective chequer and fluorescent stripes.
• Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras which identify vehicles of interest including unregistered vehicles, disqualified drivers and unlicensed drivers.
• In 2010-11 police conducted 276 major traffic operations and more than 1,200 district traffic operations.