SHAMBHALA KEEPS COPS HOPPING

Regional RCMP officers were kept busy over the weekend, as the
Shambhala music festival wrapped up in the early hours Monday morning.

Traffic enforcement was the main focus, with police all over roads in
the area.

"You name it, from unsafe vehicles and bald tires, no insurance, no
seatbelts as well as 96 marijuana seizures -- that's a lot," said
Operations NCO Staff Sergeant Dan Seibel, who has policed the festival
for two years.

"They checked a lot of vehicles."

Despite being busier than last year, Seibel said that from a policing
perspective things went relatively well.

"At the end of the day we look at the safety and well-being of the
citizens in the area, particularly Salmo and surrounding areas and the
roadways and I think our police presence contributed to that."

According to the media release, 13 charges are being recommended for
Drug and Criminal Code offences and 22 for traffic charges.

There were a total of 673 traffic related offences recorded over the
weekend, including 10 vehicles impounded and 22 towed. There were
several injury collisions, which RCMP associated to drivers being
under the influence of drugs and extreme fatigue.

Sergeant Derrick Donovan of the West Kootenay Traffic Services said he
was surprised by the number of people who weren't wearing seatbelts,
52, and the amount of excessive speeding tickets issued -- there were
eight vehicles going at least 45-kilometres over the speed limit.

Alcohol offences were relatively low but the number of drug seizures
jumped from around 80 at last year's event to 120 this past weekend.

"This year we did see a little decline in impaired driving (from
alcohol) and I think that's partially from our new laws as well,
however our concern is that people still think that they're okay to
drive while they're impaired by drugs other than alcohol," said
Donovan, who has policed the event for three years.

He added RCMP saw an overall increase in the number of drivers who
were impaired by drugs, which made infractions like not wearing
seatbelts and speeding all the more dangerous. That, combined with
drivers being overtired, was a concern for everyone.

To that end, officers were also educating drivers on how to deal with
fatigue, including rotating drivers and pulling over.

RCMP also ran undercover operations on the festival grounds again,
resulting in four different arrests for selling acid and MDMA
(Ecstacy) to undercover operators.

Even though RCMP beefed up event security already on-hand, no money is
given back to the police forces by organizers, something that Donovan
hopes changes in the future.

"The last three years in particular we've raised our enforcement,
however the cost to do it is quite large and because of the resources
it takes up ... there's only so much money to continue to do road safety
throughout the year," he explained, adding there are other major
provincial and national events who allocate some of their profits back
to police.

Officers from the Kootenay Boundary Regional Detachment (KBRD) both in
uniform and plain clothes, Integrated Road Safety Unit, West Kootenay
Traffic Unit, KBRD Police Dog Service Unit, traffic canine units and
vehicle inspectors policed the weekend event.

They patrolled highways in the surrounding areas, as well as farther
away from the festival and also on the grounds.

The festival draws around 10,000 people to the area each year.