Driven crazy by high-risk and even illegal practices by other motorists?
Don’t just drop your jaw, swear or make obscene gestures.
Pull over and contact police immediately on the Victoria Police Department’s app for reporting running red lights, treacherous left turns or talking on cellphones while driving, says department spokesman Bowen Osoko.
“We will respond,” he said. Not immediately, but the complaints are appreciated, taken seriously and acted upon, he said.
App submissions, web posts and complaint calls from citizens who sound like credible witnesses are not viewed as crank callers or petty avengers. As a police official, he has seen far more dead and injured people due to car crashes than through murder or other violent offences.
“This is a preventative effort,” he said, suggesting that drivers who assume they own the road are likely to have driven in high-risk ways before, armed with their “2,000-pound weapon.”
When credible evidence is brought to police attention, they will generally take one of three courses of action: a warning to the driver or owner via phone or letter, charges laid on behalf of the complainant under the Motor Vehicle Act or more enforcement in a particular locale.
For a particularly serious-sounding complaint, police request the complainant be willing to testify in court, which can be up to a year later. Then, if convicted, the driver can be issued a violation ticket under the Motor Vehicle Act, lose demerits and be fined hundreds of dollars.
People have always been able to phone in complaints, and usually wait on hold. When the traffic app was introduced two years ago, complainants were asked to wait 72 hours, then 24 hours before submitting their account, in order to cool down, Osoko said.
Since July, police say just the time taken to pull over has been determined to be better in terms of enforcement. Osoko estimated there are dozens of app-related traffic complaints every week.
Online reports of traffic violations require an email address from the person complaining, including time, date, vehicle and driver description, location and licence plate number. It takes about 10 minutes to make traffic complaints via the app, he said.
If several complaints are received about risky driving at a certain location at a certain time, police officers will be dispatched to the site when available.
Traffic complaints are one of only two types of complaints police take online, the other being property crimes below $5,000, in which a suspect is unlikely to be identified.
The app, available for iPhone and Android devices, can be found with a search for Victoria Police Department in their respective app stores. It was created by MobilePD for $7,500 and has an annual licensing fee of $3,500.
