Year after year, the Halton Regional Police Service and the Town of Oakville receive a high volume of complaints about speeding and aggressive driving behaviours on local streets.

Enhancing the quality of life for Oakville residents through proactive traffic safety and enforcement is thus one of the HRPS' key operational priorities. 

By focusing on perceived and actual traffic concerns through education, enforcement and project initiatives, as well as through partnerships with community stakeholders, the Service's objective is to change aggressive driver behaviour and increase compliance with the Highway Traffic Act.

With input from the Town of Oakville’s Traffic Engineering Section, Halton Region’s Transportation Coordinator and stakeholders like Community Consultation Committees, traffic priorities such as speeding, red light violations, aggressive driving and infractions in areas of school zones are evaluated on the basis of a number of criteria, including:

• Accident history
• Volume of traffic
• Number of citizen complaints
• Proximity to schools and playgrounds
• Speed surveys

Traffic issues are addressed on a needs basis, opposed to quick response and sporadic deployment of resources. 

Input from area residents confirms that a strategic approach that creates the perception of police presence and enforcement on a consistent, scheduled, rotating basis is most effective.

District Response Units (DRU):

In early 2007, the Halton Regional Police Service created District Response Units (DRUs): Dedicated teams focused on community support and traffic initiates in each District.

DRU officers work closely with municipalities and community groups to promote traffic education, enforcement and engineering to improve road safety.

Notable traffic initiatives in 2 District include:

R.I.D.E. and R.I.D.E. 101:

The Reduce Impaired Driving Everywhere (R.I.D.E.) program remains a key deterrent against drunk driving. R.I.D.E. spot checks are conducted year round, with an emphasis place on holidays and long weekends when higher volumes of traffic and opportunities to drink and drive are present.

R.I.D.E. 101 was an innovative pilot project created by the Halton Regional Police Service in 2006 to educate young drivers about the risks associated with impaired driving. The three-phase program geared towards high school students includes on-campus demonstrations and displays, as well as actual driver spot checks.

Annual Road Safety Campaigns:

Project Safe Start:

Project Safe Start is an annual initiative that enforces road safety for students and drivers at schools in the days following the start of the school year. Specific attention is paid to the five "S" infractions: speeding, seatbelts, stop signs, school bus and zone enforcement.

Project Play Safe:

With the aim of promoting and enforcing road safety, Project Play Safe targets drivers in locations such as parks, playground splash pads, skateboard parks and Community Safety Zones where children and teenagers congregate and hang out during the summer months.

Wreck Check:

The aim of Wreck Check is to promote public safety by removing unsafe vehicles from the city streets. Secondary areas of focus include ensuring automobiles and trucks are properly licenced, insured and that drivers are not suspended.

Seat Belt Safety:

To enforce and educate members of the public about the law and benefits of seat belt use, the Halton Regional Police Service joins other law enforcement agencies from across the province in conducting regular seatbelt safety campaigns in their respective jurisdictions.

Project ERASE:

On July 5, 2007, Halton became one of 18 Ontario Police Services running Project ERASE (Eliminating Racing on Streets Everywhere) with the Ministry of Transportation & Ministry of the Environment to combat street racing and high-risk driving behavior. Project ERASE focuses on modified vehicles and their drivers to instill the message that street racing will not be tolerated and is against the law.

In 2010, more than 730 charges were laid under Project ERASE, including 319 for speeding, 29 for careless driving and 189 for other HTA offences.