After more than 600 impaired-related charges laid in 2019, York Regional Police is abandoning the practice of listing the names of alleged impaired drivers on a weekly basis.

In its place, the police service announced last week it would focus on promoting its Safe Roads: Your Call initiative as the next phase in its strategy to combat impaired driving by drugs or alcohol.

The initiative encourages members of the public to call police when they see erratic driving.

During the campaign to name and shame drivers to curb impaired driving, police typically listed between 20 and 30 drivers weekly who faced impaired-related charges.

“We’re not seeing a positive impact,” said Const. Laura Nicolle, referring to the consistent weekly figures. “The push we are trying to make is that we are getting calls from people, whether it is at liquor stores, drive-thrus, or the gas station.”

More than 1,000 calls have been received to report potential impaired drivers.

“The message is that people all over the place are watching, so it’s not just the police or passing a police car (for impaired drivers) to be worried about.”

One area of concern in publishing the list of drivers is the potential for erroneously listing drivers not charged with impaired-related offences, Nicolle said.

“It is too potentially devastating,” she said. “There are so many variables that can get mixed up in this.

“For now, we have transitioned into our summer campaign focus.”

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