Provincial sheriffs expand enforcement powers
Last Updated: Wednesday, August 6, 2008 | 4:11 PM ET
The Canadian Press
Alberta sheriffs are to be given the same authority as other police to enforce impaired driving laws.
Up to 105 sheriffs are to receive additional training and will be ready to step up enforcement of impaired driving laws starting this fall before the holiday season, Solicitor General spokesman Andy Weiler said Wednesday.
"It will mean they will be able to do those investigations and lay those charges instead of calling in another police service," Weiler said. "It will give us a greater impaired driving enforcement presence on Alberta highways."
Under the current rules, sheriffs are supposed to call the RCMP or municipal police when they pull over a suspected drunk driver. If such police are not available, the sheriffs can issue a 24-hour roadside suspension.
Statistics from the Canadian Centre for Justice indicate the number of impaired driving cases in Alberta increased by 19 per cent between 2007 and 2006.
Meanwhile RCMP, municipal police and Alberta sheriffs are working together in August to bolster impaired driving enforcement as part of plan to improve road safety.
Alberta Transportation statistics for 2006 suggest that alcohol-related injury crashes are most likely to happen in August on a weekend between 11 p.m. and 3 a.m.
Out of every 1,000 licensed drivers in Alberta, men between the ages of 18 and 24 were most likely to have been drinking before a crash and five times more likely to have been drinking than women.
About 23 per cent of people involved in fatal accidents in Alberta were found to have been drinking before they got behind the wheel.
The August enforcement blitz is to include more check-stops throughout the province, said the RCMP.
