Saskatoon police say they issued 5 licence suspensions in the course of the first week of their new necessary alcohol screening measure launched firstly of the brand new yr.
Below the brand new measure formally put in place on Jan. 1, officers are allowed to demand a driver present a breath pattern whereas conducting a visitors cease with out requiring prior suspicion of impairment.
From Jan. 1 to Jan. 7, Saskatoon Police Service (SPS) mentioned in an announcement to World Information that officers administered 240 assessments underneath the brand new measure.
Whereas the measure is new to Saskatoon, different police jurisdictions in Saskatchewan have already carried out it. Regina police made the change in March 2024 whereas the province’s RCMP additionally did so a month later in April.
Different police companies throughout the nation have additionally made adjustments to permit for officers to demand a breathalyzer with out trigger because the authority for necessary screening has existed since 2018 after adjustments to Canada’s Felony Code for impaired driving.
“I feel it’s superior,” mentioned Madd Saskatoon president Bonny Stevenson concerning the new measure.
“Struggling that devastating lack of shedding your 17-year-old son is simply one thing, it impacts your entire life,” she mentioned. “The extra issues we are able to do to discourage, whether or not it’s fines, not with the ability to purchase alcohol, no matter it could be, I feel is a extremely good factor.”
Get every day Nationwide information
Get the day’s high information, political, financial, and present affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox as soon as a day.
However Stevenson says within the weeks main as much as SPS implementing necessary screening, misconceptions concerning the measure have been spreading on-line.
“You’re seeing outrage in that folks suppose they’ll get pulled over with having mouthwash on their breath and get a DUI. That’s simply not the case,” mentioned Stevenson.
In an announcement to World Information, SPS says it’s potential for mouthwash to “briefly have an effect on a roadside breath check if it accommodates ethyl alcohol or alcohol sugars,” including that there are safeguards in place to “scale back the danger of an inaccurate end result.”
“If an officer has purpose to consider alcohol (i.e. mouthwash) was just lately used, they may wait quarter-hour earlier than taking a breath pattern,” the assertion reads, including that authorised screening units are designed to detect alcohols which can be present in mouthwash and that officers are skilled to “ask the appropriate questions” so somebody isn’t wrongly charged or s
Saskatchewan RCMP say necessary screening has led the drive to check over 45,000 drivers for alcohol impairment, resulting in the elimination of 1,660 drivers from roads who both acquired a constructive end result on a screening machine or displayed signs of latest drug consumption.
“It helps us to cease drivers who’re impaired however don’t look impaired. And it helps us persuade the driving inhabitants to vary their behaviour concerning ingesting and driving,” mentioned Sask. RCMP Supt. Grant St. Germaine.
“Most individuals now know we’re going to ask for a check on a roadside cease, so they aren’t risking it anymore, they don’t drink and drive. That is what we would like.”
However for Stevenson, extra could be executed within the province to deal with impaired driving.
“Among the different provinces are doing for much longer suspensions of your licence, larger fines, longer durations the place it’s important to have a blow field in your car. I feel all of these issues are begin,” Stevenson mentioned.
Saskatchewan Authorities Insurance coverage (SGI) has round 2,400 folks enrolled in its ignition interlock program, which permits these convicted of impaired driving offences return to the highway underneath the stipulation they supply a breath pattern earlier than and in the course of the operation of their car.
“The Authorities of Saskatchewan and SGI proceed to work with regulation enforcement, companions, households of impaired driving victims, and drivers on methods to scale back the variety of folks killed or injured attributable to impaired driving crashes,” an SGI spokesperson informed World Information in assertion.
SPS says it has wrapped up its December impaired driving enforcement initiative, which noticed nearly 900 autos checked and led to the issuing of 14 tickets and three suspensions.
Over in Regina, police laid 57 expenses associated to impaired driving in the course of the month of December.
Regina Police Service additionally mentioned the drive carried out a verify cease on Dec. 31, the place over 300 folks have been screened and one individual was charged whereas one other acquired a 72-hour suspension.
Stevenson mentioned she is going to proceed to look at for outcomes of Saskatoon’s newest impaired driving numbers underneath the necessary alcohol screening program, whereas persevering with to champion one particular message.
“Make good selections, at all times plan a secure experience house.”
© 2026 World Information, a division of Corus Leisure Inc.
