POLICE Minister Jack Dempsey has backed the controversial TruCam speed cameras despite two court rulings in favour of motorists who challenged their tickets.

Police will continue to operate the cameras while their legality is tested in court. Magistrates found the fines issued to motorists did not comply with legislation requiring photographic images of vehicles to be imprinted with a “data block” . TruCams are incapable of imprinting images at the time of the offence, resulting in police adding the time, place and speed manually. Holland Park Magistrate Sheryl Cornack found the details of the offence had been added at a later time resulting in an “enhanced” image. Police Commissioner Ian Stewart said he had “no concerns about the accuracy of TruCams” but he had asked for a report on the matters. “We now have two matters that have been knocked back by magistrates, so we would be looking at appealing this latest ruling so we can get an indication of the legislation that sits behind the use of our TruCam technology,” he said. “I think this will come down to the way in which legislation is devised, and this is legislation we asked for and we need to get that tested in the courts properly. “These things happen from time to time and it is a proper process of the law that we go through.” Mr Dempsey indicated the Government would look to change the law to allow TruCam speed fines to be enforced. “If there are ways that we can improve, we will do that,” he said. “We’re certainly not fearful of what will come forth.” The Queensland Police Service has 44 TruCam devices, of which 35 are in use at any one time. They have a detection rate of more than three times that of mobile speed camera vans, and almost twice that of covert cameras. ###