(BC Director Rob Farrer. Photo by the National Police Federation)
The union, which represents RCMP officials, has concerns about impending travel restrictions between health units starting tomorrow (Friday).
Rob Farrer, director of the National Police Federation BC, says building roadblocks from Alberta or between all health regions in the province would put a tremendous drain on resources.
He added that it was a bad government idea to compare regular roadblocks to the campaign against alcohol consumption and driving.
“Driving disruption is clearly an illegal activity and it is very clear that there are measurable devices that can be used to identify impairment. If you are not (impaired), you are good to go. This will be based on a roadside judgment on whether travel is essential or not. “
Farrer added that there is a lack of clarity on enforcement and they don’t want any more division to be created between police and citizens.
“Usually when you go through training and spend your time learning that a new change is coming out. We understand this is a pandemic so things are changing fast – if you have the ability to compromise people’s civil liberties we need to be careful how we do that. “
“The logistics of how (the enforcement) might be and who will make the decision about what travel is essential and what is a leisure activity, and just the logistics from a resource standpoint, we’re not sure what this is going to be like.”
Additionally, putting in place roadblocks to see if those who don’t follow the rules are marginalizing their scarce resources.
“Roadblocks in Alberta are very different from any of the health regions in the province. You can only imagine the resources it would take to manned and manned roadblocks on all major streets and districts until after the long May weekend. “
“Most people will follow these restrictions and most people will listen, and we have to keep working from that point of view. We don’t want to create a greater separation between the police and the citizens. “
“That’s never a good result,” added Farrer.
Last week the Ontario government announced similar restrictions, but police later rejected them.
