We Promised and Now We are Delivering!
In last week’s eBlast, we promised to let you know how to report driving complaints and local neighbourhood traffic issues or concerns. Of course, these issues can be raised by calling the Toronto Police Service’s non-emergency phone number at 416-808-2222. But they can also reported online, along with a host of other items.
The website can be found here or you can enter “TPS CORE” (Toronto Police Service Citizen Online Report Entry) in your favourite search engine.
A Driving Complaint addresses an unlawful behaviour exhibited by a specific driver or vehicle, such as speeding, unsafe lane changes, disobeying traffic lights and failing to stop at a stop sign. Once a report is submitted, the police will follow up and will likely issue a letter to the registered owner of the vehicle. Note that a moving violation must be ticketed against the driver, not the vehicle owner, so the letter will not be a ticket. Nevertheless, the letter will highlight the issue and then the owner can address the issue with the driver at the time of the observation. If the identity of the driver is known to you, call the non-emergency phone number at 416-808-2222 instead of reporting online.
Local Neighbourhood Traffic Issues or Concerns address ongoing traffic concerns in a neighbourhood, such as street racing on certain nights and times, motorists ignoring a stop sign or speeding by motorists on a specific street. A specific location, day(s) and time(s) of the issues must be supplied to ensure there can be follow-up action by police. Again, if the identity of the driver is known to you, call the non-emergency phone number at 416-808-2222 instead of reporting online.
Don’t use either of these report types for parking violations. Those can be entered as a Parking Complaint at the same website.
Interesting fun fact: A few years ago, a neighbourhood asked the TPS to set up a speed trap along a local area road since they noticed a high number of speeding vehicles. A study of the resulting speeding tickets showed that the great majority of the speeders were local residents. Practice what you preach! Following all the rules of the road will provide a safer environment.