Bylaw officers take aim at speeders

DENISE RIDEOUT

IQALUIT — One by one the bylaw officers steady their arms, take aim at the vehicles driving past and pull the trigger.

“I got him,” one of them says with excitement.

Don’t worry. They’re not shooting bullets at the drivers.

They’re shooting a radar gun that measures how fast people are driving on the roads.

The exercise is part of on-the-job training for eight bylaw officers working in communities throughout the Baffin region.

Bylaw officers and police use radar guns to nab speeding drivers by tracking how fast their vehicles are travelling.

Few bylaw detachments in Nunavut have radar equipment. For some of the trainees, it’s the first time they’ve seen a radar gun.

There’s no radar gun in Cape Dorset, for example, but one of that community’s bylaw officers, Markoosie Etidloi, still came to Iqaluit for the two-day training course.

He said he’d like to see the hamlet buy radar equipment for the officers. Following the training session, Etidloi will be qualified to operate the speed-detecting device.

Etidloi, who’s been a bylaw officer for six months, is keen on keeping Cape Dorset’s streets safe. He said speeding is sometimes a problem in the community, especially on the long stretch of road in front of the school.

For now, Etidloi practices with the radar in Iqaluit. He positions himself against a light pole, faces the road near the city hall and pulls the trigger at taxis, trucks and ATVs driving down the hill.

After a couple of practice runs, he seems to have it down pat.

As the radar instructor, Larry Weber, says, “Radar is a simple operation. You just have to pull the trigger.”

Weber has spent two days with the officers, explaining the basics of radar beams, describing the mechanics of the gun and demonstrating how to use it.

At the curling rink, where the classroom has been set up, Weber’s voice echoes instructions to the officers. He’s telling them how to write up a speeding ticket. He then briefs them on what they should know if they’re ever asked to testify in court about a speeding incident.

Weber, a 27-year veteran of the RCMP and Yellowknife’s chief bylaw officer for seven years, trains officers in all sorts of police and security issues.

He was asked by some Baffin communities concerned about speeding to train their bylaw officers. Weber said in many communities the officers deal with cars, trucks, ATVs and ski-doos whi ing through the streets.

“We all know that speeding kills,” Weber says.

“It’s nice to see the community leaders trying to ensure that their bylaw officers are certified to deal with that problem.”

The officers who completed the radar training were: Samuel Nugingaq and Sammy Qappik of Qikiqtarjuaq, Suzanne Erkidjuk and Travise Dow of Iqaluit, Norman Simonie of Pond Inlet, Markoosie Etidloi of Cape Dorset, and Simeonie Ammaklak and Pituillie Qulitalik of Igloolik.