Langley’s RCMP are one of the top five police departments in the Lower Mainland when it comes to hauling impaired drivers off the roads, according to Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
In the first ranking of its kind, MADD’s Metro Vancouver Chapter has scored local police forces on their enforcement efforts against drugged and drunk drivers.
Langley came in fifth in the rankings, with a score of 37.
The remaining top four were Port Coquitlam, with a score of 100, followed by Delta, Surrey, and Port Moody.
“All the laws passed and all the work we do with public awareness can have a limited impact if there isn’t rigorous enforcement of the impaired driving laws,” said Kristine Li, MADD Metro Vancouver chapter director/secretary. “These police departments are leading the effort the public expects, and we want to celebrate them.”
MADD plans to hand out awards to the top five departments and RCMP detachments in the coming weeks.
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The rankings are the results of five months of research by the Metro Vancouver MADD chapter, which examined public data for impaired driving charges and administrative sanctions from Jan. 1, 2020, through to June 30, 2021 for all 13 Lower Mainland municipal police departments and RCMP detachments.
The data was compared to local populations to create a relative number of enforcement actions per residents.
According to a MADD statement, the data showed that enforcement was down compared to earlier periods, likely due to the pandemic and reduced hours for late-night venues like bars and clubs during parts of the last two years.
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