The Thunder Bay Police Service traffic unit has a new addition to its fleet that will allow officers to do the job more efficiently outside of the Balmoral Street station.
The new vehicle is a large van that provides officers with a mobile response to traffic enforcement, accident reconstruction and RIDE programs, said Chief Bob Herman.
“It gives our officers the tools they need in order to do their job more effectively,” he said, adding the van replaces a 10-year-old vehicle they were previously using.
“The old van was exactly that – old,” Herman said. “It was in a state where it wasn’t really cost effective to keep on repairing it.”
The TBPS applied for a grant from the Ministry of the Attorney General’s Civil Remedies grant program and received $63,000 towards the purchase of the vehicle; the police service spent $20,000 of their own funds as well.
“Fortunately with the civil remedies legislation, it enable us to access monies through the government in order to gain the funds we needed to purchase it,” Herman said. “The nice thing about this is civil remedies forfeitures are proceeds essentially from criminal misconduct.
"It allows those funds to come back to the community …So rather than saddling the taxpayers of this community with a very large bill for a new vehicle, we were able to gain this money at savings to our own taxpayers.”
The van officially hit city streets two weeks ago and from its size alone, it will be highly visible and will be used almost on a daily basis.
The traffic unit had it on William Street near Golf Links Road Wednesday afternoon while they were conducting a RIDE program.
“Traditionally when we do a RIDE program if somebody’s arrested, they have to be transported to the police station,” said traffic Sgt. Glenn Porter. “That takes two officers at least. It takes them away from doing their checks that we’re out here for. Now we can do it on scene and it’s just much more effective.”
Amongst its many uses, the van will also be extremely helpful to the accident reconstruction crew, Porter added.
“Our reconstructionists will have a mobile office,” he said. “All the gear they need at a crash scene will be right there. We’ll be able to close down a road very safely for the officers.”
