Background:
It really irks me that some police will trot out into the middle of a street wearing all dark blue with the assumption that they are perfectly visible and the vehicle they want to stop will see them and stop. I often need to wear high vis PPE at my job when there is near 0 risk of interaction with moving equipment and said equipment is moving at less than 10 km/h; but police will run into a highway with a disregard for laws designed to protect their own personal safety.
In BC, 51 traffic control persons were hit by moving vehicles between 2008 and 2012.
They are decked out in lime green everything gear in the middle of construction zones with cones and signs and blinking lights everywhere.
Understandably the 6000 flagpersons in BC are always directing traffic and are at more risk because of the number of hours spent on the street versus and the appx 8000 police in BC who are not always conducting traffic enforcement. This certainly lowers the injury rate among police but I am still surprised we don't more frequently hear of police being hit by moving vehicles.
So the simple question:
Are police exempt from laws related to wearing high visibility clothing?
Federal law (covering RCMP):
Canada Occupational Health and Safety Regulations (SOR/86-304) 12.13(a)
Canada Occupational Health and Safety Regulations
Provincial law (covering municipal police):
Workers Compensation act Part 8 - 8.24 (2) and/or Part 8 - 8.24 (3)
Occupational Health and Safety Regulation
Example pictures from in and around the lower mainland:
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