I went yesterday on a ride along with the Alberta comercial vehicle enforcement officers out in Stony Plain. It was really interesting to see what vehicle enforcement is all about. Commercial vehicles have additional rules and regulations above that of passenger vehicles and the officers check vehicles to ensure they are complying to regulations. The main job out west of the city is on the road, checking vehicles as they pass by or checking plates as they drive. They also have a weigh scale that they can use to pull vehicles over to check similar to that on the QE2.
We stopped three vehicles and checked them over (acutally I stayed in the car since I didn’t have a safety vest). We also drove up and down a few different highways at crazy speeds to check vehicles and that’s really fun!
The vehicle has a lot of neat stuff in it. The laptop was a toughbook; it will still work if you drive your vehicle over it! The vehicle is outfitted with a video camera to record interactions with people they’ve pulled over and the siren and lights are all controlled from a panel in between the arm rests.
Bertha