North Vancouver officer honoured by MADD
Good cop, MADD cop. North Vancouver RCMP Const. Jasvir Dosanjh was honoured on the weekend with a national award for reducing the number of impaired drivers on the road.
Dosanjh received the Terry Ryan Memorial Award, given annually for excellence in police service by Mothers Against Drunk Driving of Canada.
“Jasvir has a passion for prevention and interception before a crash occurs,” said Tracy Crawford, chapter services manager for MADD in Western Canada.
The constable was unavailable for comment, a spokesman for the North Vancouver RCMP detachment said.
Dosanjh has been an “Alexa Team allstar” every year since 2008, the year the Alexa program — focused on impaired drivers — began. To achieve all-star status, an officer must remove at least 25 impaired drivers from the roads in a calendar year through a Criminal Code investigation or administrative 90-day roadside prohibition. Dosanjh averages more than 100 a year. “He’s a family man, he’s committed to the community,” Crawford said. “It’s almost a pet peeve of his, he wants to get these people off the roads before an accident happens.”
The annual award’s namesake was a police constable killed in a two-car alcohol-related crash on his way home from a police function near Durham, Ont., in 2002.
Dosanjh joined the RCMP’s Surrey detachment in 2004, after working at B.C. Sheriff Services.
He moved to the North Vancouver detachment in 2009, where he serves in the municipal traffic unit.
From 2011 to 2014 Dosanjh had the highest number of impaired driving investigations in the province.
He has also been certified as a drug recognition expert and to date has suspended 962 drivers for being under the influence of alcohol or drugs since Canada’s stiffest impaired driving laws came into effect in 2010, giving officers more powers.
“Those laws are definitely working,” MADD’s Crawford said. “Twenty-four hour suspensions were not working, people were not getting the message.
Superintendent Chris Kennedy, officer in charge of the North Vancouver detachment, thanked and congratulated Dosanjh.
“Const. Dosanjh’s commitment and hard work regarding the enforcement against impaired drivers is exemplary,” Kennedy said in a statement.
“It is very fitting that he is being recognized for helping keep our roads safe on behalf of Mothers Against Drunk Drivers.”