Pubdate: Tue, 18 Apr 2006
Source: Ladysmith-Chemanius Chronicle (CN BC)
Copyright: 2006 BC Newspaper Group & New Media
Contact:  http://www.ladysmithchronicle.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1279

POLICING GOES HIGH-TECH

Blowing into a breathalyzer in a room full of police, even for a  
demonstration, can be a bit unnerving. How much can you trust a box  
that looks like an old Commodore 64?

This reporter thankfully escaped with a 0.0 blood alcohol reading  
from, despite its appearance, a state-of-the-art machine.

All the high-tech gadgetry and skills of the RCMP's South Island  
Traffic Services in Chemainus were on display for the media Thursday,  
as part of a public awareness campaign to reduce highway collisions.  
By 2010, Traffic Services want to reduce serious injuries and  
fatalities in Canada by 30 per cent.

"We see traffic crashes as homicides with skid marks," said Const.  
Dave Hay, a traffic and media relations officer for Vancouver Island.

Hay pointed out Canada has a murder on average every 16 hours but a  
fatal traffic collision every three hours and an auto-related injury  
every 2.4 minutes. "We treat traffic fatalities like big city  
homicides," Hay said. "Since 1988 I've only seen one accident'. Every  
other one somebody is responsible."

South Island Traffic Services, with 12 officers, patrols from Duke  
Point to the far end of the Malahat, is trying to keep a lid on those  
with a lead foot, an aversion to seatbelts and a penchant for alcohol.

On some days, Const. Mike Halskov can be found on the roadside with a  
laser mounted on a tripod, picking speeding targets from more than a  
kilometre away. "People with laser detectors are wasting their  
money," he says.

All the patrol cars and Harley motorcycles are equipped with multiple  
radar guns to clock speeders coming or going. Lasers can focus on  
cars back in the pack, but radar is mobile.

"Nintey-five per cent of motorists are law abiding people," added  
Const. Gregg Calibaba. "Some just make bad driving decisions."

Calibaba works with Red, a lab retriever cross, one of the RCMP's 12  
drug detecting dogs in Canada. Red has a nose for seven different  
controlled substances - marijuana, hash, cocaine, crack, meth, heroin  
and mushrooms. Calibaba says dogs can smell trace amounts of drugs in  
one or two parts per million, nullifying almost any hiding spot in a  
car.

"The dog is like radar for drugs," Calibaba said, as Red darted  
around the detachment parking lot seeking a hidden cloth coated in  
marijuana smell.

When Red finds contraband, tucked behind the gas cap of a TV news  
crew van, he sits waiting for his chew toy. A dog that bites into  
bags of drugs likely won't last long, Calibaba notes.

While officers like Halskov and Calababa are on the front end of  
traffic policing, seeking to slow motorists down, Const. Jaret Irving  
is on the scene after the damage is done.

Irving is the "CSI guy", a traffic collision analyst who puts the  
pieces together before, during and after a fatal or serious crash.

"It's surprisingly similar to CSI," Irving says. "I try to interpret  
the physical evidence on the road, using gouges, tire marks. Whether  
it helps the police or the driver, I collect the evidence  
dispassionately."

Irving can survey a scene, recreating the event on computer and  
correlating car damage to victims' injuries. It's tedious, detailed  
work that has to move fast aE" evidence is delicate and short lived.

"As tragic as a scene is, I have a job to do," Irving said. "Families  
are owed a quality investigation that is done properly."
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MAP posted-by: Jackl