Senior traffic police officers worry more drunk or dangerous drivers will end up on the road as the RCMP cuts in half the budgets of integrated road-safety units across B.C.
The 19 units across the province will receive only $15,000 per officer annually instead of $30,000 per officer, as a way to trim overtime costs.
Staff Sgt. Frank Wright, the Saanich officer who heads the Capital Regional District road safety unit, said he doesn't know how his officers will run the same number of traffic crackdowns or roadblocks as the year before.
"The number of impaired [drivers] we're able to take off the road will go down. It can't help but go down. And that negatively impacts road safety in my jurisdiction."
The 2012 operational budget for the region's unit is $230,000, down from $460,000 in 2011. The 15-officer unit is made up of municipal officers and Mounties.
Wright said the shortfall will have an "immediate, dramatic impact" on road safety in the CRD, adding he was never asked about the ramifications of the cuts.
From 1999 to 2011, he said, crashes in the region dropped 60 per cent as a result of enforcement efforts.
Justice Minister Shirley Bond said the government's funding for "enhanced traffic enforcement," which includes road safety units, has not changed.
The RCMP manages unit budgets, a ministry spokesperson said, and "it is our understanding that RCMP Traffic Services has reduced overtime allotments for IRSUs to bring them in line with other provincial units."
The province received $23.3 million for 2012-2013 from the Insurance Corporation of B.C., specifically earmarked for road-safety campaigns.
ICBC spokesman Mark Jan Vrem said while the corporation provides funding to the RCMP, "we don't tell them how to spend it."
Bond said the provincial government expects traffic enforcement to continue at current levels.
Wright said officers catch more dangerous drivers on evenings, weekends and holidays, which results in higher overtime costs. Seeing a police car parked in a dangerous spot on a consistent basis affects driver behaviour, he said.
Chris Foord, co-chairman of the CRD's traffic safety commission, questioned why the RCMP is slashing the road-safety units' budgets when the amount of money coming from the province hasn't changed.
"IRSU has posted some pretty spectacular results since their inception -- what they're doing really works," Foord said.
"Why would you ever cut this program if there's no financial cut? What's driving this?"
Foord said he wants to see an audit showing where the money is going.
Sgt. Pierre Lemaitre of the RCMP's E Division Traffic Services did not return calls for comment.
Last year, Greater Victoria's road safety unit boasted about the success of its two-month summer safety blitz on the Malahat, in which traffic police issued 1,770 speeding tickets.
No fatal crashes occurred on the stretch during that period.
The unit has done only one dedicated enforcement campaign on the Malahat this summer, on the Sunday and Monday of the August long weekend.
Officers handed out 99 tickets, including 10 for excessive speeding, and stopped three impaired drivers.
kderosa@timescolonist.com
