As police forces across the province ramp up programs to crack down on distracted driving this week, Toronto police have added a new method to catch these texting and talking drivers.

Now Toronto police are riding the TTC's streetcars to catch motorists in the act.

"Most people don't expect there to be anyone watching them from anywhere other than a police car," Const. Clinton Stibbe told CTV Toronto.

But officers like Stibbe are watching and waiting from inside moving streetcars knowing that drivers texting, emailing, or talking on their cellphones are just a stop light away.

Sitting high above traffic in one of the streetcars along busy routes such as Dundas, Queen, or King Streets, Stibbe and his colleagues are catching unsuspecting cellphone users in the act.

A recent survey shows that three out of four motorists admit to driving while distracted. This includes Gino Martignago, an unsuspecting motorist caught while operating his held-held device.

"I didn't expect it. I figured they would have pulled me over in a vehicle or something like that," Martignago said.

But Stibbe said the officers' new perch has also helped catch drivers forgetting even the most basic rules of the road.

"You could even have a situation where children aren't buckled in properly," Stibbe said. "You observe that. You step out you stop them."

Ontario's ban on using hand-held devices while driving took effect in October 2009. The law makes it illegal for drivers to talk, text, type, dial or email using hand-held cellphones and other hand-held communications and entertainment devices.

Dialing or scrolling through contacts, or manually programming a GPS device is also not allowed.

Drivers may use hand-held devices to call 911, however.

Ontario Provincial Police say at least eight people have died so far this year in distracted driving incidents on provincial highways.

Drivers caught while using a cellphone face a $155 fine, while watching an entertainment device like a movie on a tablet can result in a fine of $110.

This was a hard lesson to learn for Denise Mesko, who thought she could fool the long-arm of the law by holding her phone away from her face while talking, but that did not fool Stibbe.

Mesko insisted that she was only breaking the law because her headset was not working.

"I wasn't (using a handsfree device) because it broke," she told CTV Toronto. "So I'm guilty. It just happened."

Other forms of distracted driving can result in a charge of careless driving with fines ranging from $400 to $2,000, a possible licence suspension of up to two years and jail time.

While the OPP's recent distracted driving campaign lasts only until the end of the week, Toronto-area drivers can expect officers to remain on the TTC vehicles.

With reporting by CTV Toronto's Zuraidah Alman.