Winnipeg police handed out a staggering 40,956 photo radar tickets from April 1 to June 30 this year. That's almost as many tickets issued for all of 2012.

And still, the city has no way of measuring whether the photo radar program is meeting its supposed objective of reducing collisions and injuries.

The WPS issued 63,214 tickets in the first half of 2015. It's the most they've ever handed out in a six-month period and they're on track to issue the most photo radar tickets in a single year since the program was launched in 2003.

The previous record was in 2008 during the construction zone scandal when the city and province were nailing drivers during off-hours without proper signage. That year 118,692 tickets were issued. After a massive public backlash, the city and the NDP government were forced to fix the signage problem with new regulations.

By 2009, the number of photo radar tickets fell to 66,383 and settled back into the 40,000-range after that.

There was no evidence the fluctuation of tickets issued from year to year made Winnipeg's streets safer or less safe. But the drop in annual tickets did mean less revenue for city coffers. And city hall wasn't about to let that stand.

As a result, police brought in laser technology to augment its photo radar vehicles. It's the same laser technology police officers use with the hand-held laser guns when they do traditional speed enforcement. The only difference is the laser technology is mounted on the front of a car with a camera that takes pictures of speeders.

The benefit of the laser technology is photo enforcement cars can park in hidden areas and shoot vehicles from the side of the road as far as a block or two away. And it's been a boon for city coffers.

However, it gives the city even less data to monitor driver behaviour because unlike photo radar, laser technology can't monitor the speed and numbers of vehicles on the streets where it's being used. Which means it can't, for example, show the percentage of vehicles speeding or even the average speed of all vehicles and compare the data over time.

But it's a windfall for the city and the province, which is all that seems to matter.

The number of photo radar tickets soared 64% in 2013 after laser technology was introduced. And again, there was no evidence that streets were any safer because the city doesn't monitor collision and injuries in areas where photo radar is used.

The real jackpot, though, came when the city introduced 30 km/h speed limits for school zones last year. Instead of using conventional traffic enforcement exclusively for school zones in order to target drivers rather than vehicle owners, the city eagerly deployed its photo radar vehicles in school areas.

And they hit pay dirt.

Last year the city handed out 93,116 photo radar tickets, more than double the number of tickets issued in 2012. And this year, with even more aggressive use of photo enforcement, the numbers are expected to be even higher.

Meanwhile, the city began using more accurate collision data in 2013 for intersection cameras to better monitor the effectiveness of red light cameras. But they refuse to collect any collision data whatsoever for photo radar. The reason is obvious. The way photo radar is used and where it's used are geared towards generating revenue, not making streets safer.

So if they don't collect collision data they don't have to explain why their program is ineffective.

Under the operating agreement with the province, the city is supposed to collect crash data for all aspects of photo enforcement, not just red light cameras. But the NDP government has refused to enforce it.

The money's too good for both the city and the province. And they don't want to do anything to jeopardize that.