Alberta commercial vehicle enforcement to get new look
RED DEER, Alta. – Commercial vehicle enforcement in Alberta has been moved to the Alberta Sheriffs department, within the province’s Ministry of Justice and Solicitor General.
But truck drivers shouldn’t expect any significant changes, aside from new uniforms and eventually armed enforcement officers.
“The biggest change the industry and the public will see is, our shoulder flashes will change. Other than that, our uniforms are basically identical,” Kathy Golem, superintendent with the Sheriff’s Highway Patrol told Today’s Trucking.
Commercial vehicle enforcement will be carried out by the same regime that previously worked under the Commercial Vehicle Enforcement branch. Their vehicle fleet will gradually be updated to reflect the new Sheriffs markings, Alberta Sheriffs said in a Facebook post.
The move was made to increase efficiencies by potentially moving to a single-unit dispatch, and possibly collocating some officers.
“Bringing the two organizations together will result in coordinated command and deployment throughout the province, as well as reduced administration costs. Having CVE officers in the Alberta Sheriffs will make it easier to fill traffic enforcement positions internally from a pool of qualified candidates,” Alberta Sheriffs posted.
Alberta Sheriffs officers are permitted to carry firearms, and are trained on their use. This will be extended to commercial vehicle enforcement officers, but the Covid-19 outbreak has put their training and arming on hold for now, Golem says. Neighboring Saskatchewan also has armed commercial vehicle enforcement officers.
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So that they have more tools to respond to more situations, the province seems to be moving toward having provincial law enforcement like Sheriffs and Fish and Wildlife respond to more general duty policing situations to help supplement the RCMP who are extremely understaffed which is why rural area’s have an incredibly higher crime rate than urban area’s
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They pull over more than just big rigs. They pull over pretty much any type of commercial vehicle with a business name. This ranges from the little Boston Pizza delivery car and taxis all the way up to trucks, cranes, and busses.
They’re also moving towards pulling over personal vehicles and becoming part of Alberta Sheriffs general highway patrol.
I think that’s going a little overboard, most truckers are pretty decent out there on the open road ,so your going to have a fully armed officer doing a level one inspection on a creeper ?
Could get a little awkward.
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Human beings are unpredictable, and truck drivers are no exception. A firearm may seem overboard or scary to some, but it is just another tool in the toolbox for LE personnel. If someone is properly trained in firearms use, and is capable of sound judgement there is no issue. An added plus is the fact a wounded or injured animal on the highway may now be put down humanely by CVE if so required.
Here is my question will the “Old sheriffs” be able to pull truckers over do the on road inspection and hand out fines or will they still have to call in the Commercial Vehicle Enforcement guys ??
Most of these guys only had a 2-3 day course on how to do Inspection and they know more than a person like my self who has trained for 4 plus years to even get a inspection licenses to do this ??
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Most likely not. The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance Level 1 Inspector course is generally quite intense and requires lengthily hands on experience prior to even writing the exam.
Unless one of the “old sheriffs” blazes through the course, they won’t be able to perform any level of inspection on any type of commercial vehicle.
What is the purpose and point of having armed Commercial vehicle enforcement officers?
Is there really a need to shoot at trucks? The studies indicate that when given a deescalation situation that people will gravitate to the easiest method – now its pulling a gun on a upset trucker…