Police

Information related to the police.

Police Driving Behaviour

Good Cop, Bad CopI want you to focus your writing on the driving behaviour of many police officers. I realize that not all of them only follow the rules when it is convenient, but there is a significant number of them. Why don't they follow the traffic rules like the rest of us?

RESEARCH - Enforcement of Cycle Passing Distances

1.5m cycle passing gapCycling advocates in BC would like to see our government enact a safe passing distance law so that drivers are aware of how much space they must leave between their vehicle and the cycle as they drive by. Two US cities, Grand Rapids, Michigan and Knowville, Kentucky have such laws and were chosen by NHTSA for a study of how high visibility enforcement of the law influenced passing distances.

Q&A - Notice and Order #2 and Alberta Vehicles

Q&A ImageQUESTION: I'm an Alberta driver visiting BC. I went through a check stop where I was told to pull over and they were going to write me a notice and order for my windshield. One of the other cops walked over while she was in the middle of writing that ticket and told her to make it a number two. Now is this even enforceable on an Alberta vehicle?

RESOURCE - Check For Stolen Vehicles

CPIC LogoHave you ever wondered if a vehicle was stolen but didn't want to call the police to find out? Now you can use the same search tool that the police do with your own home computer and internet connection! Simply visit the Canadian Police Information Center (CPIC) web site and search for stolen vehicles by Vehicle Identification Number (VIN). If the vehicle is in the CPIC database as stolen you'll know.

Measuring Vehicle Speeds With Laser

Laser GunHave you ever wondered about the instruments that the police use to measure vehicle speeds on our highways? My favourite tool was LIDAR because it gave me the ability to accurately measure the speeds of individual vehicles. Although the laser must be used from a stationary position, either hand held or on a tripod, being able to target a specific vehicle made it superior to RADAR on a busy highway.

Traffic Cop Humour

ProLaserIIIIt's a beautiful spring day outside and I don't feel like writing a serious article for you this morning. I'm going to wander off in another direction and tell you a story about a bright, sunny day beside a BC highway where a group of us had set up a laser speed monitoring operation that was keeping us busy. A gentleman with a shiny new combination radar and laser detector on his dash has just been waved over for a ticket.

Police Powers

Police OfficerIf you are stopped by the police, just what is it that the officer is entitled to do? This is a simple enough question, and one that I'm not sure that many drivers and their passengers have stopped to consider. Now that we have the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, does a driver have to do anything at all?

Q&A - Red Light Camera Evidence

red light camera signI’m hoping you can point me in the right direction. My daughter was grazed by a driver who sped through a red light, to be honest she feels if she’d have been walking any faster she’d have been hit and likely killed due to the speed at which the car was traveling.

This happened at the intersection of Union Rd and Glenmore Rd in Kelowna, at exactly 10:45 pm as she walked to catch a bus.