New device is ‘worth exploring’ in distracted driving battle
In scanning for new tools to combat distracted driving, the eyes of Estevan’s police chief are drawn to a device called the Textalyzer.
As the name suggests, it lends itself to police roadside checks for illegal cellphone use.
“It’s a technology that’s certainly worth exploring,” Chief Paul Ladouceur said. “We’re seeing very quickly distracted driving become as big an issue when it comes to serious injury and death as impaired driving, which is obviously very concerning.”
Saskatchewan Government Insurance’s website declares distracted driving in Saskatchewan to be “the No. 1 contributing factor in collisions overall and one of the top three factors in fatal collisions.” It notes that “cellphones are among the biggest distractions drivers face.”
The SGI website quotes a finding from Virginia Tech Transportation Institute that drivers who are texting are 23 times more likely to be in a collision than those who aren’t.
Right now in Saskatchewan, the first-time fine for using a handheld cellphone while driving is $280, but it will more than double to $580 in February. Drivers with a graduated licence are banned from both hand-held and handsfree phone use.
Still, in its 2018 collision statistics, SGI tallied 6,977 convictions for “using electronic communication equipment while driving,” compared with 1,848 for driving with a blood-alcohol level over .08 and 654 for impaired driving.
After Ladouceur’s arrival in Estevan about five years ago, the city became known for its tough stand on drinking and driving. Police dramatically increased the number of roadside check stops. Working with Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), signs went up marking the spots where impaired drivers were arrested.
Now Ladouceur wants to take similar aim at people who text while behind the wheel.
He maintains that the habit has become more dangerous since the law was toughened up. Now, instead of having their phones at eye level, drivers try to hide what they’re doing by keeping their phones in their laps. That takes their eyes further off the road.
Ladouceur is not content to seize a phone under warrant after a collision in order to download evidence of illegal use.
“In my view, if we’re investigating a serious injury or death we’re a little too late,” he said.
Developed by the company Cellebrite, the Textalyzer plugs into a driver’s cellphone and shows when the screen was touched or swiped. It takes about 90 seconds to download the activity log.
To Ladouceur the device is a way for patrol officers to confirm what they believe they have already seen, such as a passing driver tapping on a cellphone screen. He likens it to dash cameras, which he says supplement what the officer observed and are often used in court for evidence.
However, Ladouceur also acknowledges he has to be sure that Textalyzer evidence will be accepted in court.
“Is it a reasonable delay (to administer the Textalyzer in a roadside test)? Is it a reasonable action on the part of the police to get that information?” he ponders.
So far, he may be one of the few police chiefs in the province to consider using the Textalyzer — possibly the only one.
Of the other Saskatchewan police agencies that responded to Postmedia’s query, none indicated any interest in the device.
“The Criminal Code is written to allow roadside screening devices to detect beverage alcohol on a person’s breath without a warrant on suspicion of impairment,” RCMP Cpl. Rob King wrote in an email. “The Textalyzer is a more user friendly device of what we already possess to examine phones, but the laws do not support their use as intended by the inventors.”
Corman Park’s police chief Warren Gherasim wrote “there would have to be changes to our laws that would give police officers authority to demand that a driver surrender their phone, provisions which currently do not exist under Saskatchewan legislation.”
Police services in Saskatoon, Regina and Prince Albert, as well as University of Saskatchewan Protective Services and the File Hills First Nations Police Service, all said they have not looked into acquiring Textalyzers.
In an emailed statement, the provincial government said it “currently has no plans to promote the use of this type of tool or facilitate its introduction into Saskatchewan.”
While a pilot project has been proposed in New York State, Cellebrite’s chief marketing officer Mark Gambill wrote “currently, there are no agencies using this.”
That could change if the device is legalized in some jurisdictions in the U.S. where legislation is being debated.
Meanwhile, Ladouceur said he expects it may take until early 2020 to decide whether he will pursue the use of Textalyzers any further.