Posts Tagged ‘rcmp’
Once again, our boys in blue have demonstrated how we live in an era where judgment is not a requirement of being a law enforcement officer. Unannounced training in a residential area has today resulted in a pitbull attacking a police dog, and BC’s finest shooting the family dog dead on sight.
Reports confirm the officers did not attempt non-lethal force, such as pepper spray or hell, even a taser, to get the dogs to stop fighting. Instead, a 9mm bullet went into the head of the Gorcak’s family dog of 6 years.
“Training” is a word which brings about a myriad of questions begging to be asked. The foremost being, “Does RCMP training not kick in during a crisis situation and SCREAM in the ears of officers to use a baton, pepper spray, or ANY other method of breaking the dogs apart before lethal force?” Answer: No.
The dog, doing what anyone would expect it to do, fending its territory to unannounced visitors (and do not comment saying it was “next door” - does a goddamn dog have reason of what constitutes their own families legal property line? no - so fuck off), was not on a leash at the time. This method brought about 6 years gone by without issue, however the RCMP statement addressing the issue? Beautiful.
“Dog owners must ensure that their dogs are not running loose and must have their dogs under control at all times,” RCMP spokesman Sgt. Peter Thiessen said Wednesday.
Well Peter, how about armed officers and police dogs trouncing around RESIDENTIAL areas, scaring the shit out of people and pets alike? Should police not “ensure” that their units are not running loose and have their officers under control at all times?
This coming from the same force who “justified” killing Robert Dziekanski for a wielding a stapler in the air. A stapler! Four trained, fully grown hairy-ass men, were unable to institute any kind of unarmed take down and literally tased Dziekanski to death on the terminal floor.
Merry Christmas, Gorcak family.
So you’ve decided to brave the crowds on opening day of the new mall opening up tomorrow, CrossIron Mills? We attended a recent traffic management meeting put on by Ivanhoe Cambridge and wanted to share with you some tips on getting to the mall on opening week. Construction of the Calgary Ring Road (Stoney Trail) is still continuing, but until it is complete shoppers should follow the directions below to get to the mall.
Coming from Northwest and West of Calgary
0. If coming from West of Calgary, Take Stoney Trail Exit after entering Calgary
1. Head East on Stoney Trail (Highway 201)
2. Left Turn at Harvest Hills Blvd (aka Range Road 13 / Center Street)
3. Right Turn at Township Road 272 (aka Highway 566)
4. Continue through Balzac
5. Cross Queen Elizabeth II Highway (Highway 2)
6. Arrive at CrossIron Mills on Right
Coming from Calgary or South of Calgary
1. TakeHighway 2 North
2. Continue North until you leave the city
3. Right Turn at Highway 566 (Balzac)
4. Arrive at CrossIron Mills on Right
Coming from East of Calgary
1. Take Highway 1 West
2. North on Highway 9 (aka Range Road 272)
3. Left Turn at Highway 566 (Township Road 262)
4. Arrive at CrossIron Mills on Left
Temporary Detours
To facilitate the efficient movement of vehicles at CrossIron Mills, the main roadway around the mall will be converted to a one way road for the grand opening. Normally 2 lanes in each direction, the road will have 3 lanes going counter-clockwise around the mall. One of the lanes will be reserved for emergency vehicles, employee shuttle buses and mall administration traffic. RCMP officers will be at all major intersections controlling the lights and directing traffic to reduce any traffic congestions. They will also be directing traffic on the ring road around the mall.
Future Access / Stoney Trail Ring Road Construction
Once construction wraps up on the Northeast Leg of Stoney Trail, access to CrossIron Mills will be significantly improved. The ETA for the opening of this road is November 2009. Traffic from the west will be able to continue on Stoney Trail past Harvest Hills Blvd, over Highway 2 and then into the mall complex. Traffic from the South and East will also be able to take Stoney Trail North all the way up to the mall entrance road.
In what could be one of the biggest mistakes by a police force, the RCMP confirmed that they will no longer chase suspects fleeing in stolen vehicles in Alberta. The new pursuit policy has been in place for at least two months already, but it has not been made public until now. Now, I’m not saying the policy is a mistake but publically disclosing it is. Why did the RCMP reveal their hand? It would have been perfectly fine to adopt this new policy while keeping it under wraps.
With this new knowledge of the RCMP’s vehicle pursuit policy, car thieves may now feel they can take a car for a quick joyride without fear of being pursued on the rural highways or in smaller towns where the RCMP patrol.
“Our new policy now discourages pursuing a stolen vehicle, just for the sole purpose that it’s stolen,” he said, adding the new policy won’t give drivers of stolen cars a free pass.
“Obviously if somebody is in a stolen vehicle and is impaired or has been involved in other criminal activity, then there’s no strict prohibition from engaging or not engaging, there’s all kinds of factors that will come into play.
“All pursuit policies have a balance or risk assessment portion so our members can have the policies and tools in place so they can judge if something is getting way too risky, as far as public safety goes, for the benefits of criminal apprehension.”
When I first read this I did a little poking around and found that there were many cases of RCMP police chases ending badly in BC but not so many in Alberta. Perhaps it is because the RCMP patrols in the Greater Vancouver Area. I wonder why the RCMP chose Alberta as the testing grounds for this new vehicle pursuit policy?
The Calgary Police Service has a similar pursuit policy but they also have the advantage of patrolling a much smaller area. Oh, and they also have two helicopters that can be called in to assist in a pursuit if it is available. The RCMP will be evaluating the success of the new pursuit policy and if successful will be deploying it in other regions.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think that most people see a traffic cop as someone who writes speeding tickets and fills out collision reports. This is a very narrow view of the job but I did not realize just how narrow it was until I participated in a project to define my job as a front line RCMP traffic constable. Who would have thought that this would take us three days?
Six experienced traffic constables from the four western provinces met at K Division Headquarters in Edmonton and were led in a functional job analysis by Dr. James McGinnis of the Research Branch of Human Resources Directorate of the RCMP. We brainstormed together, trying to list all of the different tasks that we were expected to perform and the knowledge that we required to do them.
The meeting room walls were soon covered with sheets of paper, each listing a single task description. Writing traffic tickets was part of the description, but only after skills and knowledge were applied to determine that the tickets were being written in the right place for the right reasons in order to reduce the behaviours that led to collisions. Incidentally, familiarity with all of the federal and provincial traffic related statutes was a must as well.
The task bank eventually identified 13 specific areas of ranging from communication skills for report writing, planning and court testimony to conducting a high speed pursuit safely. These were considered the minimum necessary to successfully perform the job. They did not include specialties such a collision reconstruction, commercial vehicle mechanical inspection or the instruction of others in these traffic skills.
There has always been a friendly rivalry between the general duty constables and those of us on traffic. I smiled when I read that the task bank indicated that we were expected to have their knowledge and the identified traffic enforcement knowledge as well. Back at you guys!
Reference Link
A new thread on this topic is started at least every week on the car forums. An unfortunate driver gets a bunch of tickets from a “power hungry” cop, and doesn’t want to pay for them so he seeks advice on our forums on how to fight the ticket. The usual responses are to head down to talk to the crown to get the charges reduced or better yet, completely dropped.
Justin Bell was pulled over by an RCMP officer after being clocked going 109 km/h in a 60 km/h zone. While most drivers in this case would accept the ticket and slow down, Bell had other ideas. After talking to the officer and realizing he was going to get a ticket, he asked the officer to speak to him in french instead. When the officer informed Bell he could not speak French, Bell ignored this and continued speaking in french. He continued to ignore the officer who was still speaking english the whole time, that is until the officer uttered “You’re under arrest!”.
“For what?” Bell inquired in English.
“Well, let’s put it this way,” the officer responded. “It’s dangerous driving, 109 in a 60 zone.”
Yesterday, a Saskatchewan judge stayed the charges against Bell after deciding that the RCMP officer did not have legitimate reason to place Bell under arrest. Its important to note that when a charge is stayed, the court is not ruling that Bell is innocent, but instead the charges are invalidated. I’m not a legal expert by any means, but I think the RCMP officer can still re-issue a speeding ticket for the original violation under the Highway Traffic Act. However, even if this was a possibility, I doubt it would happen and more than likely Bell has successfully fought a speeding ticket.
I bet it would’ve been a hell of a lot cheaper to just hire someone like pointts to fight the ticket :)
Beyond Media, Inc.
Loading ...
