"Why don't you cops spend more time catching the real criminals and less time looking for speeders?"Most people who have ever been pulled over by the RCMP for a traffic violation have probably thought something like that - and a brave few may even have said it to the officer writing the ticket.But for the mayor of our town to take on the police for their traffic enforcement priorities -not in private, but in his Council Corner column in last week's Chief - is a different matter.Of course, Ian Sutherland's comments were quite different than the normal complaint; rather than criticizing the police for spending too much time on speed traps, he was chiding them for not enough speed enforcement on Highway 99 through Squamish and too much time on seatbelt checks on other roads -and adding ICBC and the provincial government to the indictment.Of course, both seatbelt checks and speed traps are essential - even a low-speed collision can be dangerous or even fatal if you're not belted in, and the Sea to Sky Highway has a higher incidence of injuries from people not wearing their seatbelts, according to MLA Joan McIntyre, to whom we spoke this week for response to the mayor's column.But, as is often the case with our mayor, it isn't what he said so much as how and where he said it - specifically, that he intimated that another police agency ought to be contracted to look after highway enforcement if the RCMP won't comply. The cynics might mention that while we're just getting our first taste of spring this week, November already seems to be on the mayor's mind. The police, the provincial government and that most odious of bureaucratic bogeymen, ICBC, are low-risk, high-value targets for any politician, and standing up for Squamish against Victoria always plays well. Then again, one might not win too many votes with "A speed trap on every corner" for a campaign slogan.Whatever the rationale, Sutherland's complaints do bring an important subject to light. We need better enforcement on Highway 99 in urban Squamish, for the sake of the thousands of residents and visitors who use the road and for the men and women who are working in dangerous conditions to improve it.In the case of highway enforcement, the buck stops not in Squamish, but in Surrey, and corridor mayors do need to work together, as the mayor says, to ensure that the RCMP brass in charge of highway enforcement get the message.But to do that most effectively, we'll need a co-operative approach, not a confrontational one, with local police and the province to get the enforcement our busy highway needs.Besides, it's never a good idea to get into arguments with people who carry handcuffs.
