Quite some time ago I wrote about an initiative to trade your ticket for driver training. I was very pleased with the outcome of the one instance that I tried on my own, but the program never took off as the provincial government required the RCMP to provide it to all drivers if it was implemented. The Victoria Police Department is trying something similar through Restorative Justice Victoria.
I've written before about the three Es of road safety, education, engineering and enforcement. The enforcement component was the subject of a comment to me concerning a visible police presence on our highways. The observation was that unmarked cars and what seems like minimal enforcement creates a "I can get away with it" mindset.
"The officer wasn't even there! How can they issue a ticket to me based only on the word of the other driver?" A question similar to this one is posed to me fairly often and people seem to be completely surprised that something like this could happen. It's possible, but the procedure is not that simple.
I had stopped a speeding driver and was serving a copy of the violation ticket to her when I noticed a pickup truck pull in behind my police vehicle. When the ticket recipient pulled away the male driver exited his pickup and approached me. "You can't write speeding tickets here." he stated.
On April 24, 2012 an employee of Dueck Downtown Chevrolet Buick GMC Limited left a pickup truck unlocked, unattended and idling with the keys in the ignition outside one of the dealership's detailing bays. It was stolen by David Bolton.
Problems with vehicles can range from overdue maintenance to modifications that may be described as fashion over function. Responsibility for their correction rests principally with the owner and driver. When that fails, it now falls to the police and designated inspection facilities to either nudge or force correction. Depending on the severity of the defects, remedies can range from a simple reminder to a tow truck and seizure of the vehicle license and number plates.
I can remember the anticipation when our highway patrol unit was issued it's first laser speed measuring device, an LTI 20/20 Marksman. Imagine! Here was a device that we could point at a single vehicle in the traffic stream and accurately measure only it's speed. It was fast enough to re-target and measure the vehicles around it too. No one would want to use hand held radar once we were trained on this.