Gazette - Would you like fries with that?

COVER SECTION

Drunk drivers who grab a late-night snack on the way home from the bars in Surrey, British Columbia, might get more than a side of fries with their fast food orders. They might be arrested for impaired driving, courtesy of an RCMP officer in the drive-thru window.

By Caroline Ross

He won’t hand you fries, but he could hand you an impaired driving charge. Cst Brian Nanton and the Surrey RCMP Traffic Section look for impaired drivers at late-night drive-thrus.

Courtesy of Surrey Now

In a novel approach to drinking and driving counterattack, the Surrey RCMP Traffic Section has partnered with local fast food restaurants to position undercover officers in late-night drive-thrus on weekends, when the bar crowds head home. The plainclothes officers sit in the drive-thru windows with restaurant staff, watching drivers for signs of impairment like slurred speech or the odour of alcohol. If an officer sees something suspicious, he or she radios a uniformed partner who waits off-site in a marked patrol car, ready to intercept suspect drivers once they leave the restaurant property.

“It’s all about the element of surprise,” says Cst Brian Nanton of the Surrey Traffic Section Problem Solving Team.

Nanton remembers his first shift in a drive-thru, when he watched a driver pull up to the window and take a swig from an open alcoholic beverage. “It’s amazing how many people are carefree about (drinking and driving),” he says. “You don’t really see how many people actually do that until you get behind the scenes.” The initiative — dubbed Project WULF for “Would you Like Fries” — has been running since summer 2007, with the RCMP tailoring operations according to season and resources.

As of spring 2008, WULF had resulted in approximately two dozen 24-hour licence suspensions and three arrests.

But the numbers don’t tell the full story, says Nanton. “The main goal was to put the word out there,” he says, adding that once the media picked up the story, the initiative grew its own legs. “(People) think the police are at every drive-thru on the weekend. It’s putting the fear into people that they shouldn’t be driving drunk.”