A Saint-Come man has had a traffic ticket overturned partly because of the way the officer was dressed.
She was wearing camouflage pants as part of a pressure tactic by the police – and that helped the man in his case.
Marc-Olivier Caron was driving in Laval last year at 71 km/h in a 50 km/h zone.
An officer in the middle of the street tried to stop him, but he drove around her instead.
She ran after him, and when she caught him gave him two tickets: a $115 fine for speeding, and a $1293 fine for endangering the life of a police officer.
In court Caron testified that when he saw a person wearing camouflage pants and a multi-coloured vest, he never realized he was looking at a police officer.
"At that time it was very, very confusing and I was very stressed. I was moving. And also she was in the middle of the street so for me it was very dangerous to just stop there and wait for instructions," said Caron.
He said it was only when the woman came to his window that he realized she was a police officer.
"I knew only when I was very close to her," said Caron.
The judge agreed with him, and threw out Caron's large fine, although he still had to pay the speeding ticket
Having won his court battle, Caron said it's time for police to wear uniforms, by choice or by legislative force.
Public Security Minister Martin Coiteux is pushing for officers to start wearing them again and has said that if they don't wear their proper uniforms in the next few months, he will consider introducing special legislation this fall.
