A Cops Thoughts

Thoughts:

It has been a rough year for Canadian band Barenaked ladies. Yesterday Ed Robertson on the band was flying his cessna when it stalled out. Luckly he was able to land in the bush. Ed is an outgoing guy that I would listen to on CBC radio the odd time and now has his own tv show.

The lead singer Steven Page was arrested in July for possession. It is too bad as the barenaked ladies where and still is Canada’s band and as such they are looked upon as role models. Hopefully Page can get his act together and I was glad to hear that Ed Robertson who seems like one of the good guys made it out of his plane safe and sound.

Story:

Barenaked Ladies singer Ed Robertson and three others walked away from a plane crash Sunday afternoon in southeastern Ontario, police said Monday.

Robertson’s Cessna 206 float plane crashed into a wooded area near Baptiste Lake, north of Bancroft, early Sunday afternoon while trying to land, said Const. Tracey McDonald of the Bancroft OPP.

It is the second time this summer that a member of the Canadian band has been in the news. Singer Steven Page made headlines when he was arrested in upstate New York and charged with possession of a controlled substance on July 11.

Court documents allege Page admitted to snorting cocaine in his girlfriend’s apartment. Page was taken into police custody, but was later released after posting $10,000 US bail. If convicted, he faces up to 5½ years in prison.

Barenaked Ladies singer, 3 others survive plane crash

Sergeant Cam Woolley is retiring from the O.P.P and is joining Toronto cable news channel CP24 this fall as a traffic and safety specialist. Woolley is a well known face throughout Ontario as he has been the O.P.P’s front man for the media when it comes to traffic along the Hwy 400 series highways.

I am sure Cam will find it a smooth transition from police officer-media star to full time media star. Cam always had a way to bring the point across when it came to safe driving along Ontario Highways. Hats off to Cam for serving the people of Ontario for 30 years and the best of luck to him at CP24.

Uhmmm I wonder if his old job is already taken or do I have a shot at it, Mack the media star who would have thunk it…..ahahahahhaa

ok so it has been a slow week in the cop news business plus I have been on a mini vacation but last week I had heard about bigfoot finally being found…yea right. Anyway have not thought much of it until this morning while listening to the news it was confirmed it was a hoax…..duuuu but what caught my attention was the fact it was a cop and a corrections officers that pulled this hoax off.

So right away I jumped on the internet to find out more, I was thinking why in the world would a cop be sooooo stupid. It ends up they thought it would be a great idea to pull a funny one and get money to boot. Stupid idea guys as you knew it was a fraud and you took money for this fraud and now be ready pay the piper.

Here is a snippet from CNN in case you did not hear about this story. My thoughts here are that it was a stupid thing to do and now as a professional cop your career is ruined….your thoughts on this wacky story?

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) — The Bigfoot in the freezer is made of rubber, a Web posting asserted Tuesday.
The frozen creature reputed to be Bigfoot turned out to be made of rubber, an enthusaist reports.
The initial promoter of two hikers’ claim that they found the body of Bigfoot in Georgia said he has determined that the discovery was a hoax.
The body turned out to be rubber, and the two men who claimed that they found it, Matthew Whitton and Rick Dyer, have admitted that it was a costume, said a posting Tuesday on the Web sites of Searching for Bigfoot Inc. and Squatchdetective. Bigfoot fake.
The posting purportedly was written by Steve Kulls, who maintains the Squatchdetective Web site and hosts a similarly named Internet radio program, where the find was announced weeks ago.
In addition, Stanford University anthropologist Richard Klein said Monday that he was not aware he had been identified as participating in the project and would not be involved in any effort to examine the purported Bigfoot Hoax carcass.
Whitton and Dyer announced last week that they had found the body of a 7-foot-7-inch, 500-pound half-ape, half-human creature while hiking in the north Georgia mountains in June. They said they put the carcass in a freezer and had spotted about three similar living creatures. Turns out to be a fake bigfoot.
“We were not looking for Bigfoot,” Whitton, a Clayton County, Georgia, police officer, said Friday during a news conference. “We wouldn’t know what we were doing if we did.”
He and Dyer insisted that scientific analysis would bear out their claim.

CNN FOR THE REST OF THE STORY 

Tuesday I had to go out of town to a place called Elliot Lake Ontario for a meeting with the department I work for, the Ontario Provincial Police. This was an overnight trip as it is about a 6 hour drive. I took my usual items such as smart phone, and ipod touch leaving behind my laptop. I thought when we get there we can sit back relax and watch some tv and see what is happening at the Olympics.

After the 6 hour drive we finally get there in the dark and unpack, I ended up having to share a room with a buddy. The room was small and had 2 single beds, thankfully not just one double, I started thinking I am in summer camp again.

I  try to use my cellphone to call my wife to let her know I had made it there safe….but no bars. The other guys then tell me sorry pal no cell service here, ok no problem where is the land line, sorry pal no land line here, ok I will just use my ipod to email home, sorry pal no internet here. Ok well I think I can handle one night with no communication with the outside world without falling apart, I think I can, really I think I can. Ok I notice there is no tv in the room but there is a large room downstairs where most of the guys are hanging so I think well at least we can sit back and watch the Olympics. So I go downstairs and say ok boys throw on the tv, sorry pal no tv here…ahhhhhhhhh

30 guys together, no phones, no internet and no damn tv what the hell are we going to do? I sit and think for a minute and turn to one of the guys there and start talking, then another guy starts talking pretty soon we are all talking and laughing and getting to know each other. Wow I almost forgot that there is another communication tool, it is face to face communication. I had met with all of these guys in the past but never really took the time to get to know most of them.  But because of where we were it forced us to actually communicate, it was like summer camp, laughing talking and getting to know new people.

So that is what i did when there was no internet.

The 2 pictures show where I had to rough it for a night.

Thoughts:

I found this story this morning while reading teh Canadian Press online and watching the olympics on tv…well watching the olympics has nothing to do with this story but it is a great time of year for a sports fan or just a fan supporting their country. Now back to the story, I have seen video of this technology in action and it works very well. I can see this being the norm in police cars in years to come but right now it is pricey and will take a while before it is in all our cars.

Story:

An infrared camera used by British police in their anti-terrorism efforts is being deployed on Quebec and Ontario roads to snare delinquent drivers.

The automatic licence plate recognition system is now attached to eight Quebec provincial police cruisers in different parts of the province in an experiment to see how well it can take down high-risk drivers or motorists who haven’t paid for their licences.

“When there’s a problem with a licence plate, there will be an alarm in the police car to tell the police officers there’s something wrong with that plate,” said Sgt. Melanie Paul, a Quebec provincial police spokeswoman.

“The police officers will have the picture of the car and will intercept the carThe system consists of two infrared cameras that can scan 3,000 licence plates in an hour at speeds up to 160 kilometres an hour.

“It’s very quick,” Paul said, noting it’s an improvement over the more widespread low-tech way police check plates. “Now the officer chooses the car that he wants and he checks the plate through the computer one by one.”

Quebec provincial police say a typical highway patrol officer who is not using the technology only checks about 40 licence plates per day, picking plates on a random basis or if a car arouses suspicion.

The cameras download images of licence plates to computer hotlists, which are comprised of stolen licence plates, plates associated with stolen cars, prohibited drivers, unlicensed drivers and uninsured vehicles. The Quebec system is linked to the provincial auto insurance board.

The Canada Border Services Agency uses a stationary version of the system to check cars coming across the border.

Paul said Quebec is testing the system for three months and will decide later whether to discontinue its use or expand it.

FULL STORY: