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The
Bear’s View
The Making of a Traffic
Man
I’m sometimes surprised that
I ended up spending my career in the RCMP in traffic enforcement.
When I did my recruit field training after graduating from basic
training in Regina my trainer said to me “watch this, because I’m
only going to do it once.” What he did was show me how to fill out
a traffic ticket.
It was pretty clear to me
that he and the other constables on my watch were not traffic
enforcement oriented. We were all expected to do some traffic work
during our shifts, but for the most part it was usually just enough
to keep the corporal happy and avoid any mention of reluctance in
our annual assessment.
When I joined highway patrol
at about 4 ½ years of service, I would imagine that my training
began in much the same way a new commercial driver would have then
too. I completed a course on the application of the motor vehicle
laws and was given opportunities to “puppy dog” with other more
experienced people.
For the most part, I ended up
learning on my own. I studied the laws and watched what happened
while on my patrols. When I saw a violation, I had to decide if I
wanted to do something about it or not, and if I decided to do
something, would that intervention be a warning or a
ticket.
Feedback on my choices came
in many forms. The driver I was dealing with, my supervisor who
read all my tickets and the notes attached to them, the judge in
the court ruling on disputes and the example set by my co-workers
had the most influence. As the years progressed my experience also
played a role. I saw many things that on the surface appeared
minor, yet resulted in injury or death. This last was difficult for
many violators to understand. Where they saw chicken feathers
attached to the paperwork, I saw a chance to try and prevent
something from happening.
Organized road checks were
the perfect opportunity to gain experience. I was paired up with a
portable scale operator, mechanical inspector or any of a variety
of non-traffic enforcement people such as forestry, consumer
taxation (coloured fuel), conservation, fisheries and others. They
did the investigating and explaining and I got to do the
paperwork.
Once I had spent some time
and appeared to be settling in, formal training courses were
offered to me. Air brakes, dangerous goods, more advanced collision
investigation, and the introduction of new technologies such as
laser and alcohol screening devices were some of the tools I was
asked to learn and put to use.
Some of the courses were
complicated and required ongoing learning. When I joined the
collision analyst program, training was done under the auspices of
the Canadian Police College in Ottawa that lasted three weeks of
morning, noon, nights and weekends with the exam pass standard
being 80% or better. Regular testing and training sessions were
held for all program members and reading material associated with
the discipline was expected to be digested and applied.
The Commercial Vehicle Safety
Alliance (CVSA) training was begun in the early 1990’s for BC RCMP
traffic personnel. It formalized many of the things I had learned
before and established a regular framework for the inspection of
commercial vehicles. The North American Standard out of service
criteria (OOS) was introduced and we were taught how to apply it. I
was comfortable with this because I knew that the OOS criteria
involved input from the trucking community.
What impressed me were the
drivers who would pull up to a check and ask to go through the
level 1 inspection. They considered it to be a mark of distinction
to be decaled, or at least this is how it appeared to me. I think
it would be cynical to say that they got it out of the way so that
they would be left alone for the rest of the quarter!
I saw a large change in focus
over the years. When I started out, I listened to what the corporal
wanted and went out to try and accomplish it. Success was often
measured by the variety and amount of enforcement activity that one
generated. Today, there is the Traffic Services Management
Information Tool (TSMIT) and a commitment to Transport Canada’s
Road Safety Vision 2010 (RSV2010).
TSMIT tells us what the
causes of collisions are, where and when they are happening and
what actions contribute to the problem. Patrols are expected to be
conducted to target the identified problems. 30% of the time was to
be devoted to impaired driving, 30% to speeding and aggressive
driving and 30% to occupant restraint use. The remaining 10% was
left to our discretion, as long as it was guided by TSMIT or fit
into the other goals of RSV2010.
The part of RSV2010 that I
enjoyed the most was the requirement for educational programs. This
is partially responsible for writing the Bear’s View and other
activities with newspapers, radio and public groups. One unique
opportunity was being invited to take over a 2 hour high school
physics class. We developed the slide to stop formula for speed
calculations where all 4 wheels were locked and skidding from the
equations they were studying. Next we went out to the parking lot
and did a low speed skid to stop with the police car and had the
students measure the skid and use the formula to verify the
pre-skid speed. The student watching the radar inside the car
verified that they did an accurate calculation.
Believe it or not, during my
entire 20 years on traffic enforcement, I was never subject to a
ticket quota. Well, maybe I should qualify that. When I started
out, if my speeding tickets exceeded 30% of the total, the corporal
would sit me down and explain to me the error of my ways.
Throughout, all that was ever required was that I use my time on
patrol effectively.
Questions, comments and topic
suggestions for the Bear’s View are always welcome. Please e-mail
them to bears_view@shaw.ca | 