The Edmonton Sun reports that a judge has cleared the last remaining participant in the city’s photo radar bribery scandal. Sergeant Tom Bell, 50, accepted lavish gifts from Affiliated Computer Services (ACS) between 1998 and 2004 while the company was attempting to land the right run the city’s lucrative speed camera operation.While several other Edmonton Police Service employees, including Staff Sergeant Kerry Nisbet and former Chief Darryl da Costa, accepted similar benefits, Bell alone stood accused of returning the favor. On March 1, 2004, Bell wrote a memo falsely stating that ACS alone was capable of running Edmonton’s speed camera program; the company should be awarded a no-bid contract worth $90m. Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Bryan Mahoney believed this amounted to ordinary conduct and that it did not amount to a “serious and marked departure from the norm.” For that reason, he could not find Bell guilty of taking bribes despite “some poor choices and errors in judgment.” Mahoney discarded the testimony of Bell’s ex-wife, who asserted that Bell’s wrote the false memo in the hopes that he would be rewarded financially after leaving the police force.
“He wanted ACS to get the contract before any of the other companies had a chance to apply for it,” Reins testified. “By securing the contract for ACS, he thought it might help him secure a job with ACS, not in their Edmonton office, but in Arizona.”
ACS routinely hires police officials who are “helpful” to their cause, often using them to lobby former colleagues in other cities to install photo ticketing systems. Instead of believing Reins, Mahoney put his trust in the testimony of three ACS officials who claimed that Bell was never promised a job. In 2006, the two top executives at ACS were forced to step down after admitting to unethical conduct.
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I’ve had run-ins with cops in this city and province and find that they’re not of acceptable quality. There have been many scandals in the EPS unit – just look up “Edmonton Police” and “stripper” or “prostitute” to see just one recent incident, why the last chief of police was fired, and what they do to journalists/public overseers trying to find out the truth.
I don’t expect anyone to believe me, but I am not a punk but was treated as such. I also know people in that field of work and others who have dealt with members on a personal level who concur with my opinion.
They are and always will be a brotherhood until we bring in the army to do their job for them.
So because rampant corruption amounts to “ordinary conduct” it’s okay?
I wonder what sort of bribe Justice Bryan Mahoney was offered to reach such a conclusion.
The way some ranking officials carry themselves when a company throws a few dollars their way is disgusting. I firmly believe that the whole photo radar system is setup to generate revenue for the city and not to make the roads safer for taxpayers. Here in Arizona, former governor Janet Napolitano oversaw huge contracts to redflex and wrote the state budget assuming much more revenue than they really made. As a result the state just cut over $300 million in the budget to Arizona State University. It goes without saying that photo radar is becoming an issue in more than one way.
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