Al Bohachyk's sure had a strange letter published (Gazette, June 10); strange because I thought that I was reading the plot line for the old Andy Griffith show of years ago. In that show, Andy Griffith played the part of a sheriff in the small town. The show portrayed the sheriff to be the scourge of local moonshiners and criminals, yet he had the abilities to settle community problems with advice, mediation, and conciliation.
Mr. Bohachyk claimed to have “...engaged in thousands of hours of traffic enforcement in a previous career...,” and that during that time, like Andy Griffith, he estimated that he “...educated as many drivers through discussion without a summons as I did through the discussion and issuance of a summons....”
That must have been a l-o-n-g time ago as I cannot ever remember a time motorists were lined up at a speed trap waiting to get lectured by a cop around these parts!
However, as Mr. Bohachyk brought up his policing career, along with once again chastising any benefits of photo radar, perhaps he could answer a couple questions.
When he was a cop, where did he conduct his traffic enforcement when directed to do so – in an area where speeding vehicles were known to travel, or down some side street that had only a small fraction of speeding vehicles?
Of the people he stopped and let off, was there any profiling done or was a cocky 20-year-old driving a Harley just as likely to avoid a summons as an 80-year-old granny (photo radar eliminates this possibility).
If photo radar does not modify drivers’ behaviour, why is it that whenever a speeding motorist spots a photo radar vehicle at the side of the road, the driver instinctively jams on the brakes to slow down, then speed up again when they think they are out of range?
Why are you of the opinion that photo radar speed enforcement is mutually exclusive to being pulled over by a cop?
Mr. Bohachyk's letter was strange sounding indeed, until I remembered that he was one of the proponents of a new civilian police oversight committee that is scheduled to start in the new year. Then my confusion turned to concern.
I always hoped that if any changes to the civilian oversight of the St. Albert RCMP were required, the decision makers would not rely on the seemingly biased opinion of one person, who may or may not have some ulterior motive for implementing any policing change. I hoped that this committee would not consist of one or more disgruntled people who believe their mandate would include attending conferences and/or sitting around telling the RCMP what to do.
Randy Kish, St. Albert
