Edmonton police in grip of jealous rage over tires

Source: Edmonton Journal

Officers want snow gear like Calgary

ALBERTA - Sgt. Maurice Brodeur was flipping through his Edmonton Journal on Tuesday morning when he saw a picture he immediately clipped out and tacked to the bulletin board at the southeast division station.

In the foreground, the colour photo shows a grinning Calgary police officer gripping a hockey stick, but that's not what interested Brodeur. What grabbed his attention were the big, thick gripped tires on the idling cruiser in the background.

"We are the most northern, metropolitan city force in Canada and we don't have snow tires. Come on, we have to at least beat Calgary," Brodeur said with a laugh.

Inter-city competitiveness aside, the fact that the Edmonton Police Service does not equip its cruisers with winter tires perplexes and troubles the officers who drive them, especially once it starts to snow.

"We have to double people up in cars so there's somebody to push," Brodeur said. "If we have to respond to something that's important or urgent, that's going to be trouble."

As it turns out, Calgary doesn't exactly equip its Crown Victorias with winter tires, either, but is going through its own, larger pilot project. The officer in the photo Brodeur clipped out is a member of one of the two Calgary districts where vehicles were equipped with winter tires for the first time.

Calgary Police Service spokesman Kevin Brookwell said it was hit with a few major snowstorms last year that showed up the shortcomings of all-season radials. In response, the force outfitted about 100 cars with winter tires, and plans to evaluate their worth in the spring.

The all-season tires that come with Edmonton's cruisers mean that sometimes officers can't even get out of the parking lot at southeast division without enlisting others to push, Brodeur said.

The situation caused Edmonton Police Association president Tony Simioni to reference the television commercial that depicts a "Canadian police chase": one car spinning its tires in the snow, with a police car spinning its tires only metres away.



"We laugh at that, but this is pretty serious," Simioni said. "I would support equipping them with snow tires for the public safety, as well as ours."

RCMP K Division spokesman Cpl. Wayne Oakes said the decision of whether to use snow tires on the force's cruisers is left up to individual unit commanders, but most do get them.

"The majority, probably not all, but the majority of RCMP cars, come winter time, do get winter tires installed," he said.

"Installation of four winter tires is a definite benefit in Alberta driving conditions."