Police

One of the more frequently asked questions that I receive from visitors to this site concerns reporting bad driving behaviour to the police and having the offending driver held accountable. Until recently, I would point the person to the article Q&A - Making a Driving Report to the Police and encourage them to take an active role in the complaint so that something effective would be done.

Occasionally I would stop a driver who had committed a traffic violation that would roll down their driver's window half an inch, poke their driver's licence out and roll the window back up to await service of a ticket.

I was not given my copy of a speeding ticket. Will it be mailed to me or should I phone? I know which RCMP detachment wrote the ticket.

I was talking on the phone while driving. Guilty. However, while at a red light a cop in plain clothes came up to me and told me to pull over to the bus stop. I had know idea who this dude was and said as much. He flashed a badge and said "Victoria Police" and walked to the curb. I drove away wondering if he actually was a cop, thinking he probably was but continued on.

Is a Police officer also an inspector under the motor vehicle regulations? For noisy exhausts it is the opinion of the inspector that seems to critical in determining whether the vehicle exhaust is too noisy.

So it would be great if a police officer could issue a ticket or a notice to correct just based on their opinion, which should be just more useful than trying to do decibel testing.

The subject of an officer using his or her discretion in the issuance of a traffic ticket is often part of the explanation in the discussion forum on the DriveSmartBC web site. People asking for assistance in formulating their defence in traffic court often feel that in their case the officer should have given them a warning instead of a ticket. Sometimes I agree with them and sometimes I don't.

Over the course of my service in traffic law enforcement I saw many things that made me shake my head. Examples include a pickup truck that had a rope strung through the vent windows and tied to the windshield wipers so that they could be operated by the passenger, another pickup with black plastic tape stuck over the brake warning light so that the brightness would not bother the driver at night and a car had no working lights on the rear because ICBC had not arranged for collision repairs yet.

Occasionally you may find yourself waiting in a long line of vehicles for extended periods because a collision has temporarily shut down a highway. Here are some insights as to why the RCMP, working with the area highways contractor, has closed the road.

Police reports quoted in the media sometimes deliver the wrong message to the public. Here's an example from the Victoria Times Colonist newspaper.

I was wondering if you could cover a subject that is a pet peeve of mine. I have observed some RCMP members using a cell phone while driving their patrol car. Are they exempt from this law? I thought distracted driving was distracted driving. I see this happen at least once a week.