Vehicle seized in road-rage incidents
Unprecedented step by police
A specialized Edmonton police traffic team has taken the unprecedented step of seizing the vehicle of an alleged dangerous driver after an investigation into nine separate roadrage incidents over a two-year period, police said Tuesday.
The specialized traffic apprehension team seized the luxury SUV July 31 following an investigation prompted by an alleged road rage incident in Edmonton on April 21, Supt. Kevin Galvin said Tuesday.
In that case, the driver of one vehicle attempted to force another vehicle off the road and then threatened the other driver.
Galvin said police began investigating the man whose vehicle was seized after receiving reports of nine separate road-rage incidents between 2011 and 2013 — all allegedly with the same man behind the wheel.
Police seized the man’s vehicle and arrested him July 31.
“There was enough evidence there that we felt, on reasonable, probable grounds, that we could lay a Criminal Code violence charges and arrest the person for those charges and bring them before the courts,” Galvin said.
Galvin refused to release the man’s age, identity and the specific Criminal Code charges he faces. He also refused to release the specific make and model of the vehicle.
“We have two court processes ongoing. I don’t want to jeopardize one for the other,” Galvin said.
The vehicle seizure was done in consultation with the Alberta Justice civil forfeiture office under the Victims Restitution and Compensation Payment Act of Alberta. An interim civil forfeiture order for the vehicle was granted Monday, said Karl Wilberg, director of the civil forfeiture office.
“We’ve been working with the Edmonton Police Service and other police services in Alberta to take dangerous property, to take property that’s been involved in illegal activity, out of the communities,” Wilberg said. “We sell the property; the revenues go to victims, to compensate victims. Revenues go to crime prevention programs and sometimes, even if we’re not going to make any money, we’ll just do it anyways. We’ll take the property to improve community safety.”
The law has previously been used to seize vehicles in drugrelated cases, with more than 400 vehicles belonging to drug dealers taken, but has never before been used in connection with a road-rage investigation, Wilberg said.
“It worked so well with respect to drug vehicles. It took a vehicle, really rapidly, off the streets. In six days, we were able to take action to get the vehicle,” he said, calling the police department’s application of the law “innovative.”
While the man has yet to be found guilty in court, Wilberg said the public may be surprised to learn that a civil forfeiture can be granted even if someone is never convicted of a specific crime.
“It’s done whether or not they get convicted and we do it because it’s a civil process. People are surprised at this, but civil consequences for actions that can be criminal have been around for decades,” he said. “It’s just that communities and victims don’t often have the means or the wherewithal to take that civil action themselves.”
He said the public should understand that property that could be used to gain illegal profit or hurt somebody can be seized.
The threshold for taking civil forfeiture action is very high, Wilberg said.
“There has to be a likelihood of harm, which means it’s harder to prove,” he said.
Galvin said the specialized traffic apprehension team that investigated the case was following a mandate laid out by Chief Rod Knecht when he introduced the violence reduction strategy for the city.
“This is an initiative that we feel has merit, is well-founded and is within the expectation of this community,” Galvin said.
Police say their continued investigations determined the vehicle owner “posed a clear threat to public safety” while driving. The likelihood he would cause harm to others while driving made his vehicle subject to civil forfeiture, police said. Once the man is released from custody, there is nothing stopping him from getting behind the wheel of a different vehicle.
“People in these situations always have that option if there is another vehicle available to them,” Wilberg said. But, he said, the reoffender rate in civil forfeiture cases is only about three per cent.
Police did not say whether the man’s driver’s licence has been suspended.
Wilberg said the man has the right to appeal the interim forfeiture order in the coming days, before a final decision in the case is made in September.