A letter from a member of the public to the Saskatoon Board of Police Commissioners may have prompted the review of some interesting data sets. 

At its meeting Thursday afternoon, the board reviewed a letter from Kristopher VanEverdink. He wrote in to suggest police start up a ‘Last Drink’ pilot project. This would include starting to ask impaired drivers, upon arrest, where they had their last drink, or where their primary location of alcohol consumption was. 

The letter says this effort would not mean police assume a business has overserved a customer. Instead, the data collected would serve as a means of identifying patterns at particular locations and encourage licensed establishments to report impaired drivers.  

Police Chief Cam McBride says, unbeknownst to him until recent, Saskatoon police do collect this data and have been for a while.  

“In 2017, an initiative was presented to the Saskatoon Police suggesting a cooperation between the saskatoon police and the SLGA, Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming (Authority), that we work together to gather that information.”

However, to his knowledge, nothing has been done with the data.

“Needless to say, we collect the information, we’re happy to share the information with the SLGA, and SLGA would certainly be the enforcement body that would take the lead in terms of identifying chronic or problem licensed vendors or licensed establishments.”

Moving forward, the Board will ask the SLGA if it wishes to review the data, and if so, McBride says he will be happy to forward it over.