Traffic Services

On this page

• Integrated traffic units
• Putting together the pieces
• Roving Traffic Unit
• Motorcycle safety

Keeping roads and highways safe for all Albertans is a vital part of the Provincial Policing mandate. K Division RCMP members take great pride in providing professional and effective traffic enforcement on all roads and highways outside of municipal boundaries. Through public education and strategic enforcement plans, Traffic Services continues to positively impact the safety of those travelling Alberta's highways.

Integrated traffic units

RCMP and Alberta Traffic Sheriffs have been working together for safe highways since 2010. Integrated Traffic Units coordinate efforts to ensure Albertans receive the best traffic service in the most efficient and effective manner. This partnership has aligned enforcement efforts, contributed to a reduction in collisions, and increased compliancy rates.

Putting together the pieces

When police attend a complicated collision scene and need to know what happened and how, they call upon specialized members of K Division Traffic Services. Collision analysts are highly-trained police officers with an extensive range of skills. By using aerial photos and collision scene data, analysts reconstruct the collision using computer programs to produce drawings or animations of the crash. By blending the experience of interpreting physical marks left at collision scenes with science and technology, members can conclude how fast a vehicle was going, which side of the centre line it was on, or even who was driving the vehicle, ultimately concluding who is at fault and how a similar accident might be avoided in the future.

Roving Traffic Unit

Traffic Services also contribute to reducing crime in Alberta communities. Highly trained members make up K Division Traffic Service's Roving Traffic Units (RTU). These units patrol the province's highways, detecting and reducing criminal activities that can often be linked to organized crime.

Increasingly, organized crime groups are using roads and highways to transport contraband goods like drugs, guns, cigarettes, stolen property and cash. The public rarely hears about the role RTUs play in fighting organized crime because often their seizures are a part of larger, ongoing investigations. RTU has successfully confiscated large quantities of drugs including marihuana, cocaine, heroin, oxycodone and crystal meth - reducing the illicit drug supply. While their work may rarely make the headlines, K Division Traffic Service units and their canine helpers make a significant contribution to the provincial and national battle against organized crime.