Two short videos and five still images. That鈥檚 what we know about the serial speed camera vandals targeting the Parkside Drive speed camera and potentially others across the city.
There鈥檚 still so much we don鈥檛 know about the seven times the Parkside camera has been cut down over the past eleven months, and whether it鈥檚 related to or has inspired copycats who are now taking out cameras across the city.
We do know that 16 cameras were taken out across the city on Monday night. That joins the 18 other pole mounted cameras that have also been cut down since the first time Parkside was cut down last November. As well, last month, 24 mobile speed cameras were also stolen.
色色啦 police have said they have been investigating all along but have never released suspect information. After Monday鈥檚 camera cutting spree, the mayor and the police chief both promised action.
鈥淭his is an ongoing investigation, and it’s been ongoing for the last several months from the first occurrence. So, we are actively canvassing, speaking to residents, and again I must appeal to the public. If anyone sees any person who appears to be suspicious around these cameras, please call police,鈥 said Duty Inspector Peter Wallace, at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon.
Police did place a surveillance camera to watch over the Parkside Camera in July, after the fifth time it was cut down. They did not release images from the sixth time it was cut down but did release five images from the seventh time it was cut down last weekend.
While 色色啦 police say they are looking for witnesses, two people they have not spoken to yet are Faraz Gholizadeh, the co-chair or Safe Parkside, who has spoken out every time the Parkside camera has been taken down, and Richard Penner, a man who put up a trail cam and captured footage of the fifth time it was taken down and provided it to the Star.听
An unknown person is seen on a trail camera cutting down the Parkside drive speed camera.
Richard Penner鈥淭hings are getting听way out听of control because people are seeing you can get away with it quite easily and there’s been nothing done to stop them,鈥 said Gholizadeh. 鈥淓veryone just seems to want to talk about the vandalism rather than actually doing something about it.鈥
He said he鈥檚 rarely seen a police presence the seven times the camera has been taken down, although recently, he said he has noticed some cruisers occasionally parked by the camera.
Penner found the up-and-down saga of the Parkside camera farcical, so he put up a trail cam in a vigilante act, in hopes of catching the culprit and did get some footage, but he鈥檚 yet to be asked by police about it.
“I have not heard from the police once during the entire adventure,鈥 said Penner. 鈥淚 take the police at their word that they’re very busy. I think the problem has grown to a level that I hope to hear from them soon.鈥
Examining the footage
Along with the police images and two videos that the Star has obtained, there are few things we can ascertain from a Zapruder-like analysis of the footage. All the images are grainy and shot in the dark, so it鈥檚 tough to make out any identifying factors.
The vandals are using a reciprocating saw, a.k.a. sawzall, to do the damage. At least the fifth and seventh time, they used a small step stool ladder to reach the arm.
From the video from the third time and fifth times, it looks like there is only one individual, but images released by police show two figures working together to take it down.
Some eagle-eyed Star readers who saw the trail cam footage provided by Penner, say it looks like the perpetrator is wearing slippers or sandals, so they speculate the culprit must live close. As well, Penner said the way the camera shows someone jumping off the ladder, he speculates it鈥檚 a younger person, likely in their 20s.
鈥淚鈥檓 44 and there鈥檚 no way I鈥檓 jumping off a step ladder like that,鈥 said Penner.
Variations in the crimes
Let鈥檚 look at how the crimes have differed over the several times the Parkside Drive camera has been taken down.
The first time was November of 2024, and it was replaced within a week and then cut down within 24 hours.
The third time it was cut down, the camera was dragged away and then dumped into the middle of High Park’s nearby Duck Pond where it was frozen and eventually was retrieved by city staff and Redflex Traffic systems, the company with the contract to maintain and repair the cameras.听
A nearby resident shared a video with Star of someone sawing down the now-infamous speed camera around 2:30 a.m. on Dec. 29, 2024. As of April 19, the camera has been cut down four times within the past five months.
Every other time, the Parkside camera was left at the scene, except for the sixth time, in mid July, when the camera was stolen from the scene.听
None of the 16 cameras felled on Monday night were stolen.
Criminologists look at variations in the crimes to see if there are indications that different people may have committed the crimes.
Up until this week, only one other camera had been cut down twice, but that changed Monday, where many got sliced and diced for the second time.听
Timing and tools
Gholizadeh works in construction and has long speculated the perpetrators used a reciprocating saw.
鈥淗aving cut metal many times in my line of work, it seemed pretty obvious what tool they would use for such a thing,鈥 he said.
From the video, it looks like it can make quick work of the pole or the arm attached to the camera.
So far, the longest Parkside Drive’s camera has remained up since last November is a four month stretch between the third time it was cut down in December and the fourth time it was taken out in April. Since then, there’s been no discernable pattern as for how long it stays up. It has been as short as 24 hours after it has been replaced, to usually a few weeks before it’s targeted again.听
In terms of ideological motivations or triggers, the first time that it was cut down, it came as city council discussed placing bike lanes on Parkside Drive. As well, the seventh time came just days after The Star published the trail cam footage.听
All of the Parkside takedowns have occurred on the weekend, except for the sixth time, which happened on a Tuesday night. Many of the other takedowns at other locations across the city have happened during the week, like the 16 on Monday night.
All the incidents have occurred in the middle of the night. Penner鈥檚 trail cam shows that the camera was taken down around 2:20 a.m.听
While some, like 色色啦 councillor Brad Bradford called Monday鈥檚 spree a co-ordinated event, authorities have not discussed or confirmed connections between any of the incidents.
The Star asked the city, the police and the vendor if they could provide the times that each of the 16 cameras were taken down Monday evening to see what the pattern was, and possibly determine if it was one crew travelling across the city or different teams assigned areas to hit. No one was willing to provide the information.
Criminal mastermind or copycats?
At this point, with so many cameras across the city being cut down, it has likely become a crime that has inspired copycats, but without an arrest or evidence from a prosecution, it鈥檚 hard to say for sure, said Jacqueline Helfgott, a professor and director of Seattle University鈥檚 Crime and Justice research centre, as well as the author of 鈥淐opycat Crime: How Media, Technology, and Digital Culture Inspire Criminal Behaviour and Violence.鈥
That said, the variations and this escalation of crime 鈥 like the multiple cameras hit in one night 鈥 point to the likelihood of a copycat.
鈥淲ith all offences, if an individual offender gets bolder an offence can escalate in terms of the severity and law enforcement would look for links between the cases to look at similarities and differences. If this was a more extreme type of crime, law enforcement would look for a modus operandi and signature elements to be able to tell the degree to which the crime was committed by one individual versus multiple individuals,鈥 said Helfgott.
What we do know is that it did start with one person 鈥 or persons 鈥 who decided last November to take out the Parkside camera. Even they likely had no idea how far it would go.
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