QUESTION
Thank you very much for your dedication to the North Shore bi-monthy columns. I look forward to reading each one, and find great relief in the fact that others have the same questions and issues that I have.
My question is regarding the police. Too many times to count I have witnessed a police car stop at a red intersection light, turn on the siren and lights, drive through the intersection when safe, and then turn the lights and siren off immediately and continue on.
What makes this especially perplexing is the apparent lack of speed, just cruising at what appears to be the speed limit.
Why would this be taking place? Please tell me the officers are not just taking advantage of lights and sirens to avoid sitting at red lights.
Again, I do appreciate the your columns, and I definitely appreciate our police force. I feel safe every time I see an officer, and that is more than many country's citizens can attest to.
Amy Love Pankratz North Vancouver
Dear Amy:
Thank you for your question. It is one that I have heard from numerous people over the years.
Although it's difficult for me to answer conclusively - each situation is different and officers make these kinds of decisions for various reasons - I will give you some explanation of what might cause an officer to drive through an intersection in this way.
Contrary to what some people have suggested to me, half-joking but halfserious, no, officers do not flip on their lights and run through red lights to get to Tim Horton's more quickly. As much as we, like the rest of you, need our coffee, that kind of behaviour would constitute a reprehensible abuse of power the like of which would in all likelihood meet with the kind of response our new Commissioner promises for what he terms "dark-hearted behaviour." Rightly so.
However, there are more pedestrian reasons an officer might do this, and understanding them requires some knowledge of emergency vehicle operation (EVO) regulations.
The Motor Vehicle Act gives police the authority to contravene the provisions of the act under certain circumstances. In other words, we can speed, run red lights, and drive on the wrong side of the street when we need to. Section 122 states, "A driver of an emergency vehicle may do the following: (a) exceed the speed limit; (b) proceed past a red traffic control signal or stop sign without stopping; (c) disregard rules and traffic control devices governing direction of movement or turning in specified directions; (d) stop or stand."
That said, the same section also says that a peace officer must consider a host of factors that include traffic conditions, road use and the reason he or she is breaking the rules.
The MVA Emergency Vehicle Driving Regulation provides further clarification. This regulation builds on the privileges set out in Section 122, and states in Section 4 (a) that an officer must have "reasonable grounds to believe that the risk of harm to members of the public from the exercise of those privileges is less than the risk of harm to members of the public should those privileges not be exercised."
In other words, the reason for the driving needs to be in response to a situation serious enough that it outweighs the risk of harm posed by the driving itself.
Further to this, Section 4 (b) states that an officer may elect not to use lights and sirens if their use causes more risk of harm than does using them. Counterintuitive as this may sound, there are some situations where alerting a suspect to our approach could place a person in greater danger. Still and always, this must be measured against the increased risk of breaking driving rules while not using any emergency equipment.
I don't know what was happening in the situation you saw. I can only presume the officer was attending a call that in his or her estimation required a quick response and some stealth. When driving in an emergency, police officers must make splitsecond decisions based on ever-changing circumstances that are both transmitted to them through police radios and presented to them from amid the chaos outside their vehicle windshields. This is usually done while coping with an adrenaline dump in the brain, managing fear, and planning a response to the situation to which they are responding.
It is a demanding task and an enormous responsibility - one which we do not take lightly.
Peter DeVries District West Response Sergeant North Vancouver RCMP Follow Peter on Twitter at www. twitter.com/rcmpdevries If you have a question for Ask a Cop, email it to editor@nsnews. com or mail it to the attention of the editor, North Shore News, Suite 100 - 126 East 15th St., North Vancouver, B.C., V7L 2P9.
