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PROFILE

Riding around
with the

RC

MP

Highway Patrol

The zone of safety — the middie of

the police car is li

vehicle to protect officer from passing traffic.

: te é

ined up with the edge of the pulled over

May 20, 1992

Speeders beware the custom Hawk radar system will mark your speed.

The world looks different from behind the
windshield of a police cruiser. Actions that
seem rational and quick-witted while driving,
look down-right stupid from the police o!
cer's perspective.

Take, for example, the first car pulled over
in my ride around with Constable Rick Meaver
of the Nelson Highway Patrol. The dash-
mounted radar detector read 98 km-h.

They stopped and the whiskey was a
flyin’,” said Meaver. When the police car
turned on his emergency light bar and flashing
headlights to pull a late seventies blue Chrysler
over, the passenger door opened. Out flew an
A & W cup and a brown paper bag.

An almost empty rye bottle was in the bag.

Meaver, who has been with
highway patrol for the past
three years, said this often
happened. He pulls someone
over to issue them a warming
for speeding, and they end up
with a few more charges.

In this case, the passenger,
who at first replied “what
paper bag” to the constable,
was charged with littering and
drinking in a public place.
The driver, who was “sober as
a judge”, ‘was charged with
failing to produce a licence.
Their little escapade cost
them $200.

When there records came over the radio
from the dispatch office, they were as long as a
summer day. Both were awaiting trials on driv-
ing-while-impaired charges.

I asked Meaver how long it takes some peo-
ple to learn.

“They're both close to 40 years old. That
gives your answer right there.”

For Meaver, writing out the three tickets is
just the beginning. After his road shift is over,
he has to go back to headquarters and fill out
his reports on the incident (and any others that
might occur during the shift). With this case,
there is the extra paper work involved in filling
out the forms to enter as evidence the rye bot-
tle, the cup, and the confiscated case of Koka-
nee.

In a driving-while-impaired case, it can take
two to three hours just to process the driver.
Then there is the paperwork.

On this day, Meaver’s target was speeders.
That means picking, or being assigned, a strip
of highway for the day, and cruising back and
fourth on it for three to six hours.

Back and forth, back and forth, back and
forth.

The six members of the highway patrol unit,
which is responsible for the highways in and
around Castlegar, cover over 1,400 kilometres
of highway, and over 1,100 kilometres of sec-
ondary roads, in the West Kootenay. Covering
such a large area has its advantages.

“You don’t get stagnated driving up and
down the same stretch of road,” said Meaver.
But the officers do get plenty of time to think
each day.

On the section of Highway three heading
west to Grand Forks, the patrol area when I
accompanied the constable, Meaver said the
force concentrates its efforts on speeding viola-
tions and derelict vehicles.

Meaver said this stretch is one of his
favourites, but the best stretch is just east of
Salmo, up towards the Kootenay Pass. The
roads there are wide enough to allow a quick
U-tum, instead of the slower and more danger-
ous Y-turn necessary on most narrow B.C.
roads.

“Slocan Valley from Nakusp and Silverton
has the best view.”

From the passenger side of the blue and
white 1991 Caprice Classic, I saw much evi-
dence of the most common Canadian emo-
tion—-Guilh. As soon as we tumed a bend in the
toad, brake-lights blinked red.

The first part of pulling over a vehicle is set-
ting up a safety zone. When the speeder pulls
over to the side, Meaver lines up the middle of
his cruiser with the rear-left quarter-panel of
the vehicle. This allows Meaver to approach
the driver without a large risk of being hit by
passing traffic

Because they do not have to run a detach-

‘if | pull them over

selves into a ticket.’
— CONSTABLE RICK MEAVER late.

Nelson Highway Patrol

ment Office like the RCMP in Castlegar, they
can run ‘luxury’ operations.

“We can shift our manpower for work pro-
jects.” On long weekends, like the just past
Victoria Day long-weekend, the priority for the
force is Highway three. They might run four
cars on the stretch on Friday and Monday,
while only one or two cruisers would be out
the Saturday and Sunday.

On the back and forth highway cruising to
catch speeders, the main weapon is the Custom
Hawk radar system. The readout is mounted on
the centre of the dash, while the radar “gun” is
mounted on the left side on the dash, and on
the rear window sill. It is controlled with a
hand-held switch that allows radar to be direct-
ed at cars on either side of the
road, and heading towards or
away from the cruiser.

It’s tough to beat the sys-
tem.

“There’s no continuous
beam anymore, so radar detec-
tors aren’t worth the money,”
Meaver added. He caught one
driver at 111 km-h, who had a
radar detector.

“ I guess it activated a little

Thor most of the people
he pulled over Were polite,
Meaver said that you get
about one belligerent cus-

RCMP.

tomer a day.

“There are some out there who are just anti-
police.” Meaver said he’s pulled over cars
where the driver swore and cussed, while their
kids are in the backseat.

“Tt makes you wonder what kind of example
they are setting for their kids.”

But, on the whole, Meaver said the stress on
the job is not as bad as in general duty. As a
general duty officer, you're guaranteed a lot of
negative situations. Then, you're on the front
lines dealing with the explosive situations of
domestic assaults, robberies—the side of society
where people operate under stress and heavy
emotions.

There is stress on the highway though.
Every time he up tb a car, there is the
potential for danger. Only once has Meaver
come face-to-face with danger from a driver.

When he was working in Maple Ridge
about 3 am. one morning, he saw a running
car parked in an alley. The driver was behind
the wheel, and obviously intoxicated. When
Meaver got to car, the driver reached over and
pulled out a starter’s pistol.

“You're not expecting it, and the next
moment all hell breaks loose.”

It’s easy to become a little lax on the high-
way during the day, when you can see who is
in the vehicle and how many occupants there

“It’s worse at night because you can’t see
and you never know what awaits you.”

Individuals have a lot of choice when it
comes to speeding. They can choose not to
speed, which can save quite a bit of money
with the province’s new increased fines.

And drivers can remember that there's a lot
of discretion involved when handing out tick-
ets.

“If you wanted to, you could probably fill
up a page with tickets. It is discretion and
that's where attitude comes in. If I pull them
over and I’m going to give them a warning,
and they are disrespectful and belligerent,
they’ve talked themselves into a ticket.”

Sun story &
photos by

Jason Keenan
te