Ottawa's police chief acknowledges there will be a learning curve to the legalization of recreational marijuana, but says his force has officers trained to respond to pot-impaired drivers.
"We're as ready as we can be with the information that we have," said Chief Charles Bordeleau, pointing out that there are still plenty of unknowns. "We don't know what the fine is, with respect to somebody smoking in public; that's a ticketable offence under the Ontario Cannabis Act."
Listen to Chief Charles Bordeleau talking on The Rick Gibbons Show, about how the OPS is handling pot legalization:
Public safety will be the number one priority for officers, with a major focus on impaired driving. When it comes to testing, Ottawa Police will rely on drug recognition experts; 24 are trained now, with the goal of having 50.
"They're front-line...and they're split up into six platoons," said Insp. Murray Knowles. "So at any given point, there should be two to three of them on each shift."
The police service also plans to get all 450 patrol officers trained on field sobriety.
In addition to figuring out a whole new set of fines and tickets, patrol officers will also need training on the search and seizure rules, and the amount of marijuana a person is legally allowed to have on them.
Chief Bordeleau says he's confident these bumps will be ironed out by October 17, when recreational marijuana use becomes legal.
-- with files from 1310 NEWS reporter Jenn Pritchard
