Скачать или смотреть A Call for Police Budget Audit

http://www.ctvvancouverisland.ca
  / ctvvi  

VICTORIA - There is more in a CTV News investigation looking at funding cuts for the police unit dedicated to road safety in the Capital Region.

CTV News first reported how the Integrated Road Safety Unit (IRSU) had its budget cut in half.

The province denies cutting the funding, but the CRD Traffic Safety Commission wants to know where the money is going and it is calling for a provincial audit.

IRSU was out on the Pat Bay Highway Wednesday targeting dangerous drivers.

The team runs like a well-oiled machine. An officer uses a laser to clock the speed of drivers and radios to a car waiting to pull them over.

But the day did not get off to a good start; before officers began their shift they were unplugging their eight-year-old vehicles from battery chargers.

For one cruiser, that wasn't enough and it had to be charged with a booster pack that officers carry in case their cars don't start.

The officers on the team say they are not asking for anything special, just good equipment.

The cars may spend a lot of time at the side of the road idling but they are driven very hard.

"These vehicles are the police officers' office while they're on duty," says Staff Sgt. Frank Wright as he drives one of the cruisers during a traffic campaign.

"They conduct all of their work when they are on the road inside this car which is fatigued," the head of the CRD'S IRSU explains "They need, and they deserve, to have better equipment for keeping the roads safe."

And that is not the only frustration Wright faces. He is concerned a budget cut will mean fewer dangerous drivers will be caught by his team.

"I understand that we are going to be asked to hold a 10 percent vacancy in our unit."

Wright says the money from ICBC, the government run insurance company providing the majority of the funding for IRSU, has remained the same since the program's inception.

"But when that money trickles down to Unit Commanders, my operational budget has been decreased by 50 percent."

In a written statement to CTV News, Justice Minister Shirley Bond says the provincial government's expectation is that enhanced traffic enforcement will continue at the current levels with no reduction in service delivery.

Bond explains that RCMP Traffic Services in B.C. is responsible for managing and funding the IRSU units and that issues such as overtime and vehicle replacement fall within that responsibility.

"In particular, vehicle replacement for the IRSU units is guided by the same standard as any other provincial traffic unit," Bond goes on to explain "If funding or resourcing becomes an issue for a particular unit, such as the CRD IRSU, we expect that discussions will occur with (RCMP) "E" Division Traffic Services to resolve the matter," Bond writes.

The chair of the Capital Region's Traffic Safety Commission says that's not good enough.

"The IRSU program has been tremendously successful," Chris Foord "If the province's money is going there and it's not getting there, it's time for an audit."

The head of the CRD IRSU team says he just wants the same resources his team has been given for the past eight years, so they can keep making our roads safer.

The RCMP says it cannot confirm if the budget for the CRD IRSU was reduced, but promises to answer any questions about the program in the coming days.

Follow Stephen Andrew on Twitter:   / ctvnewsstephen