Residents of Prince Albert may notice more law enforcement vehicles present over the next two days.
The Prince Albert Police Service will be hosting a Selective Traffic Enforcement Program (STEP) blitz beginning on Wednesday, August 19 and continuing on August 20.
“It is a combination of police services and law enforcement all throughout Saskatchewan in conjunction with SGI and it’s just come out and do a little bit of a blitz and do some traffic enforcement and provide some traffic education,” Sgt. Brian Glynn of the traffic and CTSS (Combined Traffic Services) Saskatchewan for the Prince Albert Police Service explained.
According to Glynn there were nearly 50 members from STEP, which is a multi-agency task force dedicated to improving traffic safety across Saskatchewan. Members include municipal police agencies, the RCMP, Saskatchewan Highway Patrol (SHP), Canadian National and Canadian Pacific Police and representatives from SGI and the Ministries of Justice and Finance.
“It is a combination of police services and law enforcement all throughout Saskatchewan in conjunction with SGI and it’s just come out and do a little bit of a blitz and do some traffic enforcement and provide some traffic education,” Glynn said.
Police members from across Saskatchewan worked alongside partner agencies to identify traffic violations and take enforcement action.
“We will have a spotter … up by the bridge looking for anything, looking for distracted driving, anything that has to do with car seats, seat belts, speeding, even right down to vehicle equipment regulations,” Glynn said from a spot on River Street on Wednesday.
Enforcement activities will focus on offences related to speeding, distracted driving, seatbelt use, unlicensed drivers and commercial vehicle standards. Impaired driving enforcement was also a top priority.
“We want to make sure that the people that are out on our streets are driving in a safe manner and their vehicles are road worthy,” Glynn said.
There were six locations around Prince Albert on Wednesday and another six locations will be targeted on Thursday.
“So we will work this afternoon until around suppertime and tomorrow morning we will start at 8 and be done by noon and then all of the members that came from out of town will disperse and head back to their home agencies,” he explained.
He explained that all of the STEP blitzes are well attended and SGI is a great partner in the project. Each year the traffic enforcement blitzes take part across the province but there were some changes this year with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Last month there was one in North Battleford and next month there will be one in Regina.
“When I was back in the traffic section in 2012 I was in Melfort and took part in the blitz, they spread them around really well,” Glynn said.
Glynn hopes that the blitz gets the message across.
“I think anytime that you have a mass collection of law enforcement it does get people’s attention and there is a lot of contacts made. It’s the education piece along with the enforcement piece that we are trying to make our roads safer for our citizens, as safe as we can,” Glynn said.
Police members from across Saskatchewan worked alongside partner agencies to identify traffic violations and take enforcement action. This two-day initiative will take place at various locations around Prince Albert.
“We want to make sure that the people that are out on our streets are driving in a safe manner and their vehicles are road worthy,” he added.
