The president of MADD Canada has a problem with the conditional discharge handed to a Halifax police officer last week for impaired driving.

"This sentence was a breach of public trust," Margaret Miller said in a weekend interview.

"Everybody needs to be treated equally, all impaired drivers. He should have got the standard sentence with a fine and should have a criminal record. I don’t think there should have been any exception made.

"If anything, because he’s a police officer, he should have been held even more accountable for his actions. They almost should have been a little harder on him because he knows better. He goes to these crash scenes and sees the death and devastation caused by impaired driving. How can he possibly do this?"

Don Ranni, a constable with Halifax Regional Police, was off-duty when he was arrested last Nov. 12 at about 5:30 a.m. after his vehicle hit a curb and broke down on a city street.

Const. Ranni’s breathalyzer readings were .150 and .140, well above the legal limit of .08, or 80 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood.

He pleaded guilty in January to driving while his blood-alcohol level was over the legal limit and was sentenced Thursday by Judge Bill Digby in Halifax provincial court.

If Const. Ranni, 31, follows the conditions of his one-year probation order, his conviction will be discharged and he won’t have a criminal record.

The order requires him to take part in substance abuse treatment and counselling as directed by his probation officer and make his "best effort" not to consume alcohol.

Const. Ranni of Armstrong Court in Halifax is also prohibited from driving for a year.

The judge didn’t impose the customary fine of at least $600 for a first conviction of impaired driving. Const. Ranni was only ordered to pay a $50 victim fine surcharge.

Ms. Miller’s son Bruce, a Springhill police constable, died after a head-on collision with a drunk driver in Prince Edward Island in 2004. He was 26.

She said her son often spoke about how police officers had to be accountable for their actions and maintain the highest standards.

"I talked to a couple of officers (Friday) and they themselves were outraged at this sentence," said Ms. Miller, who lives near Shubenacadie. "They’re both municipal officers and they both were upset at this ruling."

Const. Ranni, a 2004 graduate of the Atlantic Police Academy in Summerside, P.E.I., has been suspended from the Halifax force with pay since last November. He completed a four-week treatment program at Crosbie House, an addictions facility in New Minas, and continues to have followup sessions with its staff every two weeks.

At sentencing, defence lawyer David Bright asked Judge Digby to give the officer a conditional discharge for curative treatment. John MacDonald, a senior Crown attorney brought in from Sydney to prosecute the case, requested a $700 fine.

"If you or I were in any kind of a job where we had authority and there was a code of conduct and you breached that code of conduct, you would be losing your job," Ms. Miller said.

"There would be absolutely no question."

Asked whether she was calling for the officer’s firing, Ms. Miller replied: "I’m saying they have to look at it very closely.""What kind of message are they sending out to the public when they’re letting a police officer get away with impaired driving? That’s basically what’s happening because he’s not going to have a criminal record like every other citizen would."

Ms. Miller, who began a two-year term last September as president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving Canada, said she was surprised a reporter didn’t call her sooner for reaction to the sentence. She said the association takes every opportunity it can to comment on courts’ handling of impaired drivers.

"But MADD Canada will not write to judges or try to affect judges’ decisions or anything like that," she said. "That’s certainly not anything we’re going to come close to doing."

Const. Ranni was also charged with drunk driving in his hometown of Sydney on Jan. 1, 2003, before he became a police officer, but the charge was withdrawn a month later.

"Whatever the reason was for it being dropped at that time, now here’s another charge again," said Ms. Miller. "It needed to be addressed seriously and not treated this lightly."

On average, four people are killed and 187 are injured by drunk drivers every day in Canada, she said.

"Impaired driving is not an accident. People choose to drive impaired. This officer chose to drive impaired, and he knows better. How easily could somebody have been killed?

"We’re saying that impairment starts sometimes as low as .02. This man was almost twice the legal limit, which is a lot of alcohol in his system. There is no way that he should have been driving under any conditions, yet he chose to risk other peoples’ lives by being out on the highway.

"It’s unforgivable."

( sbruce@herald.ca)

’What kind of message are they sending out to the public when they’re letting a police officer get away with impaired driving? That’s basically what’s happening because he’s not going to have a criminal record like every other citizen would.’

MARGARET MILLERMADD Canada president

© 2008 The Halifax Herald Limited