After pulling over a 72-year-old female driver for rolling through a stop sign, Sgt. Eddie Yeouman sighed as he pulled up her perfectly clean driving record on his in-car screen. He turned to the civilian passengers in the cruiser.
“What would you do?” he asked us. The way the Ottawa police officer saw it, there were three options — four if you include a verbal warning — for the individual who was driving a Ford 250 work truck but had forgotten her driver’s licence and lived a couple of hours away, not a couple of kilometres.
According Sgt. Yeouman, the main options were: A Provincial Offence Notice for failure to stop at a stop sign, which comes with a $110 fine and a penalty of three demerit points; a bylaw ticket for disobeying a sign, which is a $180 fine but no demerits; and/or a ticket for failing to produce a drivers’ licence.
Hmm. Considering her spotless record and the fact that she was from out of town, I voted for the licence infraction only. My colleague, Postmedia photographer Ashley Fraser, on the other hand, wanted to throw the book at her.
In this case, Sgt. Yeouman, who’s the traffic sergeant for the South District, agreed with me, figuring the perpetrator had already learned her lesson.
“This is an example where I can change her behaviour,” he explained. “You’re really hoping that when people leave, they’re going to say, ‘You know what? I needed that reminder.’”
The ride-along was part of a Nov. 5 traffic blitz designed to highlight the Ottawa Police Service’s ongoing efforts to raise awareness on road safety and crack down on bad driving in a year that has already seen the highest number of traffic fatalities in a decade on city streets. Thirty-two people have lost their lives in traffic-related incidents this year, including 11 pedestrians. The 2025 total was 23.
A quick U-turn and we returned to monitor the busy residential intersection in the South District, an area of the city that’s plagued with bad driving behaviour.
This particular four-way intersection — Findlay Creek and Devonwood — was selected for enforcement because it gets frequent complaints from residents about drivers failing to stop. With two schools down the road, residential neighbourhoods on both sides and a shopping centre at the next corner, I observed a steady stream of cars, bicycles and pedestrians going about their daily activities.
We didn’t wait long. A grey Tesla swooped past the cruiser and blew through the stop sign without a glimmer of brake lights. Sgt. Yeouman reacted by pulling out after it, lights flashing and siren blaring.
The culprit was a fellow in his 20s who said he was an emergency-room doctor running late for his shift at the hospital. He had a stethoscope on the dashboard, and made an appeal for leniency. He lived nearby.
Unfortunately for him, the sergeant did not give this driver the benefit of the doubt, and didn’t ask us to weigh in on the verdict. He went ahead with the $110 provincial-offence notice and three demerits. Ouch.
While we were on our stakeout, at least 20 other officers were conducting traffic enforcement at the same time throughout the vast South District, which encompasses Barrhaven, Riverside South, Findlay Creek, Osgoode, Richmond and Manotick. The usual traffic-enforcement team consists of just six officers and a sergeant.
At one point, the sergeant took a call about a stunt-driving charge in progress. The officer had nabbed a 23-year-old man travelling 142 km/hr in an 80 km/hr zone, and was waiting for a tow truck to arrive to seize the vehicle. The lad’s father was apparently not happy.
Police across the city are doing their best to curb the rise of poor driving. Officers have issued 32 per cent more tickets and warnings so far in 2026, including more than 700 impaired charges. But at the same time, they lost an important tool when automated speed cameras were removed a year ago.
The removal of speed cameras makes school zones particularly vulnerable, and it will be years before OPS has the staffing to cover them all. “Now that we don’t have the cameras, (police) are the default,” police Chief Eric Stubbs told a recent meeting of the Police Services Board.
The South District is one of the worst areas, with its rapidly growing population, ongoing construction, constant car and truck traffic and a road network that includes everything from rural straightaways to suburban arteries to residential school zones. Despite its huge geographic footprint, it’s patrolled by a measly half-dozen traffic-enforcement officers and their supervisor.
South District Insp. Ali Toghrol says the whole territory has become a notorious for dangerous driving behaviours.
“Our officers are observing a concerning decline in overall driving habits,” he said. ”We have issued provincial offence notices for hand-held-device use, unsafe lane changes, red-light violations, and numbers of other driving infractions.”
Speeding is a huge issue, and not only because it reduces reaction time. Anyone who lives within earshot of Strandherd Drive, West Hunt Club, Limebank or Leitrim Roads, for example, knows they’re rampant with stunt-driving, and therefore risky for the rest of us.
I wanted to see speed enforcement in action so we hopped aboard a Ford 250 that looked like a clunky old work truck but was fully kitted out with cameras, scanners and other tech gear. In the driver’s seat was Const. Tony Hagan.
As we drove south along River Road, the plate-reader was constantly scanning for questionable plates. From the back seat, I could see the screen as it zeroed in on a target and pinged, not unlike a fish finder.
One ping targeted a car driven by an older woman whose husband’s driver’s licence was pulled for medical reasons the previous month, but their car was still in his name. Another ping centred on a parked car, but there was no driver so we carried on. I made a mental note to ensure my own plates were up-to-date.
I was slightly shocked but impressed to see how effectively the new radar system picked up the speed of vehicles travelling in the opposite direction, even several hundred metres down the road. You might not realize it’s a cop until he or she turns around and pulls you over.
Sure enough, that’s what happened to a hapless young woman in her early 20s who was travelling over 100 km/hr in an 80 zone outside Manotick. It was not yet noon, but Const. Hagan asked her to blow into a mobile breathalyzer unit. She passed, and at least she didn’t have her phone in her hand because that’s a $600+ fine.
Still, with a driving record that revealed her to be a repeat speeder, she was nailed with a fine and three demerit points, which will stay on her driving record for three years and affect her insurance rate. (Another note to self: Never. Ever. Speed.)
One more key thing I learned about traffic-enforcement is the importance of public input. Ottawa police don’t have enough officers to patrol the areas once covered by speed cameras, but every one of us can help by identifying trouble spots.
Got an intersection in your neighbourhood where cars ignore stop signs? Maybe a school zone that turns into chaos at rush hour? Or how about the nighttime racing that wakes you up?
Take note of the details and make a report by calling the OPS’ non-urgent line, 613-236-1222, ext. 7300, or do it through the Traffic Complaints portal on their website.
Your call might save a life.
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