Police

Have you ever felt upset enough about something that happened around you in traffic that you wanted to report it to the police? I'm sure that we've all felt that way at one time or another but haven't followed through.

Who is responsible when an autonomous vehicle is doing the driving and the police intend to take enforcement action for an error it commits? This question is explored in a report from the Rand Corporation. While the report looks at the perspective in the US, the same questions will have to be answered here in Canada.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that most people see a traffic cop as someone who writes speeding tickets and hangs around Tim Hortons. This is a very narrow view of the job but I did not realize just how narrow it was until I participated in a project to define my job as a front line RCMP traffic constable.

Jagger Ross Schurman was stopped by police in Vancouver for a number of violations while he was driving his mother's car. "He was under the impression that he would be principally fined but that the tickets would not go on his driving record. He also indicated that he was led into an erroneous understanding about the effect of pleading guilty with respect to the accumulation of points against his driver's licence by the attending officer's roadside statements."

Despite the fact that it is older technology, radar is still frequently used by police to measure vehicle speeds today. When used properly, it is an accurate method of determining how fast a vehicle is traveling. The courts also accept qualified radar evidence of speed during a trial as commonplace.

When I was posted in the Okanagan in the 1990s I was answering phones in the detachment dispatch office. A caller from Summerland asked what would happen if he decided to take his protest sign down to the highway and conduct his own personal blockade. He expressed the opinion that if he did that the police would arrive quickly and if he did not move he would be removed.

Melissa Burroughs, an RCMP officer, was driving a marked police car westbound on First Avenue in the curb lane at Young Road in Chilliwack, B.C. She observed a truck pulling an uninsured trailer and attempted to pursue it by making a left turn onto Young. Jennifer Chiasson was driving eastbound on First Avenue and collided with the police vehicle in the intersection.

A commuter asked "I would really like to see the article written about what to do when we see a commercial transport vehicle that is driving in an unsafe manner. You gave us a phone number to call that specifically relates to tractor trailers, and who to call when we witness a driving infraction. I see it on a regular basis and most of the times the trucks are unmarked."

Slated to take effect in January 2020, BC's Director of Police Services, Brenda Butterworth-Carr, has released new standards aimed at promoting unbiased policing.

Skidmarks left on the pavement at a collision scene tell the investigator many things about the events involved in a motor vehicle collision. One common example involves using the length of the mark to calculate pre-collision speed.