A Collaborative Approach to Enhancing Traffic Safety in Residential Communities
by Cst. Jeff Leimer #3503, Calgary Police Service, CPS, Traffic Section, Residential Traffic Safety Unit, RTSU
This article is to re-introduce The Residential Traffic Safety Unit (RTSU), a unit created to specifically address residential traffic issues. Our strategy is to utilize citizen feedback to develop our operational response. We focus on playground zones, pedestrian rich areas, and other high-risk locations identified through collision data analysis. The RTSU is attached to the Traffic Section of the Calgary Police Service.
The Residential Traffic Safety Unit (RTSU) has four sworn Calgary Police officers and four photo radar operators that work strictly days from Monday to Friday. Each week, we work on a quadrant of the city and at the beginning of that week, we review all the Traffic Service Requests (TSRs) that have been submitted. We review the TSRs and pick the ones that affect the residential areas mostly, such as playground zones. The ones that appear to be on the major roadways and outside the Monday to Friday schedule we pass onto the district offices and the Traffic Response Unit (TRU) teams.
We strongly emphasize public awareness and education, facilitating citizen engagement by attending community association board meetings to discuss the Traffic Service Request System (TSR). The TSR is a key tool to help Calgary Police Service monitor and track traffic safety issues. We encourage communities to offer this link in newsletters and on community web pages. You can submit a TSR through this link: https://www.calgary.ca/cps/traffic/traffic-service-requests.html.
Anyone can use the TSR program and if the complainant is unable to access it, we welcome a third party to complete it but to include the original person’s contact information so that officers can reach out for further details. Each TSR is provided with a unique number for tracking. The officer will include dates and times that they contacted the complainant, enforcement duration, and stats. This tracking can be used to direct members of the districts and TRU teams when best to conduct enforcement and/or for the City to see if additional changes of signage, roadway engineering, or traffic calming measures are needed.
We at the RTSU also conduct school blitzes weekly at schools we know to have considerable issues with parking, jaywalking, and unsafe driving habits. We also receive TSRs from the schools either by staff or parents. These blitzes include cooperation with the Calgary Parking Authority (CPA).
The RTSU also utilizes strong collaborative relationships with City partners on traffic concerns requiring resolutions other than enforcement (sign changes, installation of crosswalks, rectangular rapid flashing beacons, extension of playground zones, etc.).
We can further assist by liaising with established community partnerships. This includes MLA offices, City Councillor offices, and neighborhood committee coordinators as we continue to expand events attended by the RTSU.
