This month, Lloydminster RCMP will be testing a new traffic safety program involving a metal cutout of an officer with a radar gun. They plan to call the cutout “Constable Scarecrow.”
According to the RCMP, the idea “originated in Coquitlam, B.C., last year. Since the program’s inception, Coquitlam RCMP reported the number of drivers exceeding the speed limit was reduced by approximately 50 per cent.”
READ MORE: RCMP surprised by how much poster-board cutout of Coquitlam Mountie has helped reduce speeding
The full-sized metal cutout will be placed in strategic locations around the city, near high-traffic and high-collision roads.
“This initiative is a positive step to enhance road safety,” says Insp. Lee Brachmann, the Lloydminster RCMP detachment commander. “Hopefully we will see a reduction in the number of violations found on the roads.”
RCMP say in 2016, 85 per cent of collisions in Alberta involved at least one driver who committed a driving error.