Nomination for OACP Award Traffic Safety Initiative of the Year For organizations with more than 500 officers

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1 Nomination for OACP Award Traffic Safety Initiative of the Year For organizations with more than 500 officers Lead Members Inspector Bruce Kovack Operations Support Sergeant Jeff Galipeau Traffic Services Detective Constable David Ashfield Traffic Services Durham Regional Police Service 605 Rossland Rd East, Box 911 Whitby, Ontario L1N 0B8 (905) Submitted By: Inspector Bruce Kovack Operational Support This nomination is supported and endorsed by Chief Michael Ewles of the Durham Regional Police Service 13 April, 2012

2 Nomination Report OACP Traffic Safety Initiative of the Year Nomination Police Service Over 500 Members Purpose To nominate the DRP s innovative and industry-leading 2011 Festive R.I.D.E. campaign (DRPS) for the Traffic Safety Initiative of the Year award (agencies with 500+ employees). Executive Summary Every year, police services struggle with the significant community safety problem of impaired driving. Faced with an increasing population and a frozen budget, the DRPS had to strategically re-think its entire approach. Following our problem-solving and intelligence-led enforcement model, R.I.D.E. team members strengthened partnerships in 2010 with the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO), Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), local media, municipal fire and ambulance services, local schools, municipal governments and individuals across the Region of Durham. For the first time, Officers were deployed using spatial / temporal analysis of past alcohol-related motor vehicle collisions for the Festive R.I.D.E. campaign. As well, they began data mining at the side of the road. After stopping impaired drivers, they began asking where they had consumed their last drink. The information was recorded in a database and surprising trends began to emerge including the fact the vast majority had been drinking in licensed establishments and not at house parties or company celebrations. Letters were later sent to these bars, restaurants and sporting venues, advising how many drunk drivers actually came from their establishments. Copies of the letters were sent to the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO), MADD and to the appropriate police liquor enforcement teams. Early in 2011, the new approach had caught the attention of the AGCO, which launched a six-month pilot program in 2011 called the Last Drink Program directly based on the DRPS model. This pilot program involved six police services across the province and die to its success is being expanded to 10. As the 2011 Festive R.I.D.E. campaign approached, the DRP had a wealth of data on which to base deployment decisions. As a result, dramatic resource efficiencies were realized with fewer vehicles were stopped and more drunk drivers caught than ever before. They removed 155 drunk drivers from the road (a 12% increase over 2010) and suspended 308 (8% increase) more while stopping 20% less vehicles. The Intelligence-led Approach The 2011 Festive R.I.D.E. team began each shift reviewing intelligence data and then scouting out various known locations where alcohol-related activity was known to occur. The members reported back what they found and this information was readily used to plan the evening s locations. They had the advantage of all of the lessons learned from the previous R.I.D.E. campaign. They had the names of the problem bars and taverns, the locations of past impaired driving arrests, suspension lists, sporting event and train schedules as well as spatial / temporal alcohol related collision data. All of this was considered as the evening locations were chosen and the team briefed. 2

3 Innovative Operational Tactics The traditional view of a R.I.D.E. check is one where a group of officers select a location on a busy roadway to stop and check vehicles. They stay there as long as it stays busy, or until a certain time, and locations are often well known and repeated. The size and structure of the unit make it cumbersome and difficult to move. The DRPS created and adopted a highly mobile, response model. It is intelligence based, member driven, mobile and flexible, while still providing high R.I.D.E visibility. Every shift started with a team briefing. Tactics from previous days were assessed and altered as necessary. Intelligence gathering assignments and the evening s specific R.I.D.E. duties were given out. Members then spread out across the Region to do reconnaissance of licensed establishments, hot spots identified by Crime Analysis, and areas that attracted recent alcohol related police activity (parties, sporting events, GO train schedules etc). The information collected was used to determine where the R.I.D.E. team would be deployed that evening. The team consisted of two parts; the traditional location set up, made to look the part, but with a skeleton crew and supported by a team of mobile roving units, utilizing both marked and subdued marking vehicles. The static unit was often placed in positions designed to create the most obvious reactions from drivers attempting to avoid the check. This was done deliberately because the mobile part of the team was spread out strategically to intercept these vehicles. It was these units that stopped the majority of drivers that were later arrested or suspended. An example of this would be the R.I.D.E. check set up to receive an incoming GO train in Oshawa. The train was loaded with passengers arriving from an event at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto where alcohol was being served. The static R.I.D.E. check was deliberately deployed on a road that was very visible to the incoming train. However, the rest of the team in mobile units, were deployed out of sight near a second exit that led in a completely different direction. Two further officers were designated as interdiction cars to stop anyone avoiding either location. The result was that the R.I.D.E. team was fully engaged with arrests, suspensions, and impounds within minutes of the trains arrival, as many persons were identified attempting to avoid the obvious R.I.D.E. check, but were subsequently stopped by the roving units. This type of success was repeated many times over. Due to the small size of the static unit and mobile nature of the team, the DRPS R.I.D.E model is able to change locations rapidly and does so very often. Members are constantly monitoring other police activity and are able to respond rapidly to Impaired Following, bar fights and other alcohol related calls for service that are occurring elsewhere in the Region. Twitter is routinely monitored and when the R.I.D.E. location is identified, the team moves to the most likely alternate route taken to avoid it. In any of these cases, the area is saturated with roving units and suspects are stopped. With 308, 45- and 90-day ADLS suspensions occurring as a result of 2011 R.I.D.E., the potential for suspended drivers to be violating these short term suspensions is quite high. Therefore, the DRPS engaged non-r.i.d.e. traffic officers to perform routine suspension compliance checks on charged persons. The result was that in 2011 the DRPS laid 84% more suspension related offences than in 2009 and 20% more than 2010 when this initiative was first attempted. The table below shows the very impressive results from DRPS R.I.D.E. The results for 2011 showed increases in arrests and suspensions while also increasing the efficiency as noted above. 3

4 Impaired/ Exceed / Refuse Vehicles Stopped Persons Arrested n/a Persons Charged Charges Persons Suspended Stop/Arrest Ratio : n/a Stop/Charge Ratio : Stop/Suspend Ratio : Drug / Other CC Persons Charged Charges Licensed Establishments, the AGCO and the Last Drink Program In early 2011, after collecting data on locations where drivers had consumed their last drink (95% of drivers complied), the DRPS collated that data and identified 66 licensed establishments, mostly in Durham Region, but also in Toronto and York, where drivers had consumed alcoholic beverages prior to being stopped. A letter, signed by DRPS Chief Constable, Mike Ewles, entitled Community Safety Notice was then sent to each of these establishments advising them of their involvement in the alcohol related driving offences (as alleged by a driver stopped by the DRPS R.I.D.E. program). Further, the letter invited the establishment to recognize their role in this event and to engage with the DRPS to provide safer roads for our communities. Every letter was copied to the appropriate DRPS Divisional CRU Unit, MADD Durham Region, and to the AGCO s office for continued follow-up. The initial result was that a number of establishments contacted the DRPS TSB to discuss the matter and determine a course of action. Traffic Officers were sent to follow-up and even met with the entire staff at a few locations to provide training and direction. CRU units receiving the letters also followedup with personal contact and enforcement projects using that data collected to justify the response. The AGCO s office contacted the DRPS to examine what was occurring and how the information had been obtained. They immediately began to act on this new found wealth of actionable information and sent their investigators to visit every one of the 66 establishments. In response to the successful effect of the DRPS data collection and letters to establishments, the AGCO initiated a pilot program called the Last Drink Program, directly based on the DRPS model. Six services were involved and due to that pilot s success, it is planned to expand ten. Once again the DRPS was leading the way in arresting impaired drivers and assisting the AGCO in identifying offending licenced establishments, many previously not identified. In an unexpected twist, word of what the DRPS has accomplished through it s R.I.D.E. program and spin off enforcement and investigation appears to be spreading through various methods across the country. The DRPS TSB began receiving inquires from Edmonton, Halifax, various places in BC and numerous across Ontario in 2011 and continues to receive inquires in Community and Outside Agency Mobilization The impact of the initiatives started within the DRPS during Festive R.I.D.E. has spread beyond the confines of the police service and local bars and restaurants. The tactics and letter campaign and personal follow-up are only a few of the DRPS initiatives designed to reduce impaired driving and increase road safety. Furthers efforts described below are involved in this multifaceted approach that 4

5 endeavours to reach many different demographics in a variety of ways. The Festive RIDE season is initiated every year in the greater Toronto area with a R.I.D.E. kick off sponsored by MADD. But the DRPS started a week earlier with their own regional kickoff event sponsored by the local MADD chapter held at Uxbridge Secondary School. This venue was chosen since the local community had recently been severely impacted by a number of tragic incidents involving students from this school where students had died as a result of alcohol related Motor Vehicle Collisions (MVCs). Participating in the event with displays, speeches and donations of food and supplies were; DRPS Senior Command, the R.I.D.E. team, Traffic Unit officers, Mobile Command (used in R.I.D.E. set up) and internal Media Unit Members of the Ontario Provincial Police Whitby Detachment Region of Durham Ambulance Services Various Municipal Fire Services ORNGE Air Ambulance Services Local municipal, provincial and federal politicians (or representatives) Students from the local chapter of SADD, Students Against Drunk Driving Local merchants and business owners The ceremony got off to an emotional start when 17-year-old Grade 12 student Bridget Rusk read a M.A.D.D. poem about a young woman killed in a collision by a drunk driver even though she was driving sober. Uxbridge Township Mayor Gerri Lynn O Connor was emotionally moved by the speech and urged all young people to take the message to heart and to play an active role in preventing drinking and driving incidents. DRPS Chief Constable Mike Ewles, Regional Chair Roger Anderson and other civic officials also lent their voice to the chorus, imploring people of all ages to make the right choice and avoid driving when impaired by drug or alcohol. Most impressive were the posters created by Uxbridge S.S. students in support of the anti-drinking and driving campaign. Grade 12 student Carolyne Garbas poster was selected as the main poster for this season s campaign and was featured in local newspapers and websites. The winning posters are also being kept on permanent display in prominent places to enable the continuous delivery of the RIDE message to the community year round. Perhaps most impactful, is the winning poster on display in Durham College / University of Ontario Institute of Technology where students are regularly being exposed to the message through this piece of graphic art. The poster is targeted at this location to reach an age demographic that is prominently represented in the statistics being gathered by the DRPS and is another example of the evidence based decision making that went into the selection of this location for the posters. Working with a local radio station, DRPS Traffic Officers coordinated the creation and delivery of radio messages and community service announcements that were broadcast throughout the Festive R.I.D.E. season. The theme was Sharing Our Experience so that You Drive Safe and drew on the experience of veteran Police, Fire and Ambulance personnel across the Region and how drinking and driving, and distracted driving has affected them. In one case, a Paramedic describes arriving on the scene of a fatal motor vehicle collision involving alcohol and how it affected him. In another a retired Fire Fighter describes the pain of being told his daughter was killed by an impaired driver after years of responding to scenes just like the one she perished in. 5

6 Lastly, the DRPS in cooperation with the Crown s Attorney s office has tracked the court disposition of all impaired related charges in 2011 with the intention of identifying quality, training and reporting issues and monitoring the appropriateness of resolutions. Due to the high level of attention to reporting detail and Crown cooperation, the DRPS has realized a conviction rate of 87% of cases in 2011, with 6% still on-going in the court process and only a 7% withdrawal / acquittal rate. Results of the DRPS 2011 R.I.D.E. Program MADD Award Terry Ryan Memorial Award for Excellence in Police Services The 2011 MADD Officer of the Year Award was presented to A/Sgt David Ashfield for his leadership in achieving these remarkable results and the subsequent follow-up. AGCO Pilot The AGCO s Last Drink Pilot was in direct response to the DRPS R.I.D.E initiative and data collection. The AGCO was provided with templates, reports and descriptions of tactics to disseminate to any / all police services. NO Impaired Related Fatalities in Durham Region during 2011 R.I.D.E. Increased Related Impaired Arrests Increased Impaired Related Suspensions Increased Vehicle Stop Efficiency Increased Court Brief Quality Increased Impaired Related Convictions In Summary The Durham Regional Police Service is being nominated for the OACP Outstanding Traffic Safety Initiative Award due to the Service s absolute commitment to community safety evidenced by the very high level of performance achieved in the 2010/2011 and 2011/12 Festive R.I.D.E. campaigns, and the extensive community based follow-up that has, and is still achieving the desired outcomes. Impaired driving is being combated in an extraordinarily effective manner, community partners are assisting with stopping the problem at the source, and the community roads are safer because it. This commitment is exemplified in the service-wide, intelligence led approach and the complete support of the executive command, traffic and frontline units, crime analysis, investigative units, community enforcement units, supervisors and members at all levels. R.I.D.E. enforcement by the DRPS did not stop at the end of the R.I.D.E. seasons. It has grown into a planned, service-wide, problem solving initiative that is carried on throughout the year with subsequent spin off programs and enforcement that involves many community partners and other enforcement agencies. Many of these spin off programs were only achievable due to the valuable and relevant data that was collected at the time of R.I.D.E. This data collection, analysis, and follow-up, coupled with the aggressive and planned tactics being applied by the R.I.D.E team, have made this program the model for other police services in Ontario, with the full endorsement of the AGCO s office. The DRPS is committed to providing the safest community to live work and play. The progressive and effective initiatives described in this nomination are ample evidence of that commitment and are worthy of recognition through the OACP Outstanding Liquor Enforcement Award. 6