REGINA – You may notice more police presence on Saskatchewan roads and specifically more officers ticketing drivers in areas they wouldn’t often patrol.
It’s part of the Combined Traffic Services Saskatchewan (CTSS) unit that targets traffic safety and sees Mounties issue tickets in cities, and city officers out in rural areas.
“There are more dedicated police officers on the road in an integrated fashion,” explained Supt. Alfredo Bangloy with the RCMP Wednesday.
CTSS was announced last year in efforts to reduce collisions and deaths throughout the province.
The first team was launched in the Saskatoon area in October, 2014 and resulted in more than 9,000 tickets handed out by May 31st, 2015.
SGI’s assistant vice president of traffic safety and driver services, Kwei Quaye, explained the hope is that combining education and an additional 60 officers will see those violation numbers go down.
“Without enforcement we can tell people ‘don’t use your cell phone’ but after a while, when they realize there’s nobody out there to touch them, they just go back to using their cell phone,” he said. “So this is really critical.”
CTSS has now been expanded to include the Estevan and Weyburn area as of June 1st, something Insp. Murray Cowan with the Estevan Police Service said is crucial in preventing deaths on the roads.
“We have noticed a significant increase in our impaired driving in the Estevan area…with our oil field activity and mining activity and all the activities that go on in the southeast corner,” he said.
If the integrated team is proven successful, there could be four total units covering the province in the future.
However, Drew Wilby with the Ministry of Justice said a review will first be done sometime next year to determine CTSS’s success.
“First determine, ‘is it a success? What does it look like?’” he explained. “Then there’s a view to expand to the northern region as well as the Regina and southwest region.”
CTSS has received $2.4 million in funding since it was implemented last year.
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