Every year, the BC Association of Chiefs of Police publishes a traffic enforcement calendar that maps out coordinated, province-wide enforcement campaigns throughout the year. We watch this calendar closely, and we think you should too.
March marks the first major enforcement push of the new year, and it comes in with two simultaneous campaigns running the entire month: the Distracted Driving Enforcement Campaign and the Occupant Restraint Campaign. If you’re on B.C. roads in March, police across the province will be actively looking for drivers on their phones and drivers without their seatbelts on.
How These Campaigns Work
The BCACP coordinates these campaigns across municipal police departments and the RCMP. They typically launch the month with a high-visibility blitz in the first days of March, with officers deployed in numbers and tickets issued in volume. That initial push serves a dual purpose: it generates real enforcement activity, and it generates media coverage. News crews are invited out. Stories run. The message gets amplified.
The intention is to change driver behaviour through a combination of enforcement and public awareness. What matters for you is knowing it’s happening.
This Is Not Random
These are not random enforcement blitzes. They are scheduled, announced in advance, and coordinated across agencies. The calendar is publicly available, and we monitor it throughout the year precisely so we can pass that information along.
The year is full of these campaigns. April brings the Slow Down Move Over campaign for emergency vehicles. May has a high risk driving campaign and a motorcycle safety campaign. From June 15 through July 31 the focus shifts to summer impaired driving. September brings another cell phone enforcement campaign alongside school zone enforcement. October targets speed relative to conditions and pedestrian safety as the days get shorter. December closes the year with the winter impaired driving campaign.
The enforcement calendar runs year-round, and police prepare for each campaign in advance.
Any stop can lead to a breathalyzer test
Any contact with the police when you’re behind the wheel is risky. In British Columbia it is now common for the police to make mandatory roadside breathalyzer tests, approved screening device demands, when people are pulled over for an alleged cell phone violation. If you don’t see the risk in that, think again. People with no alcohol in their body have blown Fail on ASD breathalyzers and it’s not uncommon, even for healthy people, to end up with a refusal allegation when they did their best to blow.
Why March Matters More This Year
The March campaigns take on added significance in 2026. Vancouver is hosting seven FIFA World Cup matches at BC Place, with the first kicking off on June 13 and the last on July 7. As that window approaches, police resources across Vancouver, Richmond, and the Lower Mainland will increasingly be directed toward FIFA security and crowd management operations. March madness is going to be followed by a huge FIFA party.
March is realistically the last period of full-scale, coordinated traffic enforcement before the attention of local police shifts toward one of the largest events this city has ever hosted. If the BCACP and local departments are going to make a strong statement on distracted driving before the summer, March is the time to do it.
What This Means Right Now
The March distracted driving campaign is focused on one thing: drivers holding their cell phones behind the wheel. A cell phone ticket in British Columbia is one of the heaviest traffic penalties on the books, carrying a substantial fine, penalty points, and downstream consequences through ICBC at renewal time. This is not the month to take chances. We do not want our Acumen Law blog readers ending up on the 6:00 news, which is why we are warning you now.
We will continue monitoring the BCACP enforcement calendar and flagging upcoming campaigns throughout the year. Consider this your standing heads-up.