PEEL REGIONAL POLICE
Lists top spots where drunk drivers had last drink
MISSISSAUGA: Peel Regional Police are keeping secret their list of restaurants and bars in the Region that are notorious for producing drunk drivers, even though a Peel officer revealed one of the establishments in court earlier this year.
A Freedom of Information request asking the force to provide its “Top 10 list” for the popular Last Drink Program over the last three years, was turned down
It’s a program that sees officers compile statistics on drunk drivers to determine where they consumed their alcohol before getting behind the wheel. The information helps officers target specific areas for drunk driving and allows the Liquor Licence Board of Ontario’s inspectors to target certain businesses for enforcement.
Const. Andrea Schulz, coordinator in the force’s Information & Privacy unit, said the request was denied for a number of reasons, citing the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. They include the possibility that the information may interfere “with the gathering of law enforcement intelligence information respecting organizations or persons,” or that it might interfere with a “law enforcement matter.”
However, earlier this year, in a drinking and driving criminal case, Peel Police Const. Tim Weatherley, while defending his reasoning for pulling over the driver, revealed the Pure Gold strip club, on Royal Windsor Dr. in Mississauga, was on the list.
Weatherley testified one of the reasons he stopped the male driver was because he “had a suspicion that there could be alcohol in the driver’s system as that establishment is a liquor license establishment,” that is in the force’s “Top 10 list” in the Last Drink Program.
“And that means that every time someone is arrested, we ask where their last drink was, and out of all the places in the City of Mississauga and the City of Brampton, Pure Gold is on the Top 10 list,” Weatherley said in court.
Schulz hasn’t responded to a request for further comment.