RIDE checkpoint coming to a road near you
’Tis the season.
Niagara Regional Police are ramping up for the busy holiday season with their annual series of RIDE programs aimed at drunk drivers.
“We are running a holiday RIDE program and have several dates booked until the end of the year,” Sgt. Josh Klop said.
The NRP ran RIDE programs Saturday in West Lincoln, and Thorold, which were staffed with members of the traffic enforcement unit, uniform patrol officers and auxiliary officers.
During the evening and early morning, the police stopped 482 vehicles, but no impaired driving charges were laid. Officers did issue 10 tickets for various Highway Traffic Act violations including failing to provide a driver’s licence, driving with no insurance and driving with an expired permit.
The first holiday RIDE program had been set for the last weekend in November, but staffing levels prevented it from happening.
“We plan on running five to six RIDEs until the end of the year, and most of those dates have several officers signed up already,” Klop said.
Cliff Priest, president of Niagara Region Police Association, which represents the officers, said circumstances sometimes dictate rescheduling a RIDE spot-check.
“We can schedule a RIDE, but if something major happens somewhere else in the region, like a serious collision, or executing multiple search warrants, which happened recently with the guns and gangs unit, they are considered immediate, and draw resources. If we have a ready supply of officers for a RIDE, they will be taken away, and the RIDE will be rescheduled.”
Priest, who ran the traffic unit before assuming duties with the association, said the NRP’s commitment has never wavered.
In 2016, the most recent year for which statistics are readily available, the NRP set up 18 scheduled RIDE spot-checks and stopped about 6,500 vehicles. Officers conducted 114 roadside tests. Twenty-one people had their licences suspended for three days or more. Police officers charged 12 people criminally for impaired driving and issued 107 tickets.
“Impairment, by drugs or alcohol, is still the No. 1 cause of criminal death in Canada,” Priest said. “We run an aggressive RIDE program. We are one of the first services to introduce naming people who arrested for impaired. You may have noticed that some other services have realized it is a tool in the armoury to try and fight impairment to show people it is not socially acceptable. It also lets employers know an employee has been arrested for impaired and no longer has his or her licence. Some of these people continue to drive while they are suspended.”