Other than licence suspension...

[sebberry]

What charges would the officers involved in this incident be subject to? They failed to stop for the police, they were apparantly racing...
Isn't this some form of criminal code violation?



http://www.vancouverite.com/2009/07/...a-traffic-cop/

Three Prince George RCMP officers have been suspended from driving after they sped past a traffic cop.

All three officers were off-duty on May 15 and driving down Highway 16 on their motorbikes when a cop keeping an eye on speeders spotted them and followed.

“The police officer activated the emergency equipment and waited for an unrelated vehicle to pass by before executing a safe U-turn,” RCMP explained.

“The police officer attempted to close the distance but the motorcycles were pulling away and the police officer shut down, radioing ahead to another police officer who stopped the three motorcycles,” they said.

“The riders were three off-duty police officers from Prince George City Detachment. As a result, an investigation was undertaken and witnesses were interviewed to determine what action would be taken.

“This incident was compared to others we have dealt with and a decision was made to charge all three with Motor Vehicle Act offences. A report was submitted to the Superintendent of Motor Vehicles, and that review resulted in a four month Driving Prohibition for all three individuals,” RCMP said in a statement.

Police said the suspension is an Administrative Driving Prohibition that was ordered by the Superintendent of Motor vehicles. This suspension is a Motor vehicle Act Suspension and not a Criminal Code Suspension.

“The three police officers involved are all Constables. There was never any indication of alcohol or drug involvement . Had there been any indication, the investigation would have gone immediately into a criminal code investigation,” said the RCMP explanation.

Just as a personal note, it's sad that we keep hearing things about "Road safety vision 2010", formation and funding of the IRSU, etc.. and we continue to hear about police officers drinking and driving, racing, Van Dongen's multiple excessive speed infractions, etc...

Either the lawmakers and police really do believe that speed is not that big of an issue or we have some really irresponsible people tooting the road safety horn. Or a bit of both?

[skidmark]

Read the story again, this time focus on the people involved other than the motorcycle riders...

Here we have a couple of cops that obviously believed in the rule of traffic law. They stopped, investigated and charged three other police officers for the violations. No "professional courtesy" here. Their supervisors supported it and didn't try to sweep the incident under the rug.

The matter isn't over yet. I suspect that once court proceedings are over, there will be a Code of Conduct investigation as well. In addition to the penalties that civilians are subject to, these officers will be subject to the additional penalties imposed under the RCMP Act.

Failing to stop for police is not automatically a criminal matter, nor a Motor Vehicle Act matter either. The Crown must be able to prove that the motorcycle riders knew that they were being pursued and willfully disobeyed causing a pursuit. The story says that the officer pursuing was held up in traffic and it is possible that the 3 motorcyclists didn't see the police vehicle.

I agree with you, the officers should hold themselves to a higher standard than other drivers and they did not. The same with the MLA. However, give credit where credit is due, obviously some officers do believe strongly or this incident would never have come to light.

Your observations should also include about 90% of drivers on the road today who cannot adhere to the speed limit. Before they can complain about these officers, they had better take a good look at their own speedometer. I've been watching myself with a driver monitoring device I was given to test and it seems that I manage 93 to 95 km/h as my top speed on the way to and from work where the posted speed limit does not exceed 90 km/h. I'm driving in the right lane and I'm the slowest thing on the road most days.

[sebberry]

Originally Posted by skidmark

Read the story again, this time focus on the people involved other than the motorcycle riders...

I suppose, but that doesn't change the fact that there are public and law enforcement officials who demonstrate that they feel speed limits are set too low. I wouldn't expect that ANY professional courtesy would be given to three riders racing. I wonder if the officer who clocked them would be willing to extend professional courtesy to them if they were caught at just 10km/hr over the limit?..

Originally Posted by skidmark

I've been watching myself with a driver monitoring device I was given to test and it seems that I manage 93 to 95 km/h as my top speed on the way to and from work where the posted speed limit does not exceed 90 km/h. I'm driving in the right lane and I'm the slowest thing on the road most days.

Interesting device. What are the intended uses of it and is it something that could be potentially be used by parents to improve their teen's safety?

Out of the thousands of drivers who safely travel that route at speeds in excess of the speed limit without incident, do you not feel that you could potentially be a risk to the other drivers? Even you are admitting that you find it difficult to adhere strictly to the limit.

I realize that it is their decision to tailgate you until they can pass and that any ensuing collision would be 100% their fauly, but don't drivers collectively have a resonsibility to ensure that they pose as little of a risk as possible to the overall safety of the road?