kingstonpolice

Western style over English. Much more control.

Ha, good to see you Jeff!

For lulz: Too hard to pick one! Just love how people feel they can be themselves with us and feel like they're not talking to a blue wall of corporate police speak. Their humour and personal experiences really come through.

For srs: Hardest and one of the most fear-inducing decisions was to run headlong into a treeline by Kingston Mills in the pitch black dark of night knowing an armed male had just run in there who had apparently forcibly confined a woman earlier in the evening. Tactically it would have been more intelligent to stay on the perimeter and wait for the tactical team to attend, but a fellow patrol officer had just bolted in there ahead of me. Even though I may have been walking into the barrel of this guy's gun I didn't want to leave my partner solo. And it was so tempting to want to light up the forest with my flashlight but knew I would then be a target. Long story short my partner and I both hunkered down, the suspect double-backed to the road, got away, but we tracked him down and arrested him a couple of days later.

Just because: have to go with the horse-sized duck. Our Use of Force options on our duty belt are more geared towards an individual. I don't have enough rounds of ammunition for 100 "attackers", the pepper spray would wear out quickly and it's hard to perform an arm bar technique on a miniature horse, whereas I think I could manipulate the duck's wings. ;-)

Absolutely. While this job certainly has its serious moments, part of what makes it bearable is the levity and humourous situations you find yourself in. One night I was dispatched to a slightly shady motel room where an individual was high on drugs. They desperately needed to show me something, and proceeded to get down on their hands and knees in the corner of the closet and call out to Whoopi Goldberg, who apparently was hiding under the floorboards. We were able to get him help that night but had to laugh at the situation.

Absolutely. We've now solved close to 20 cases as a direct result of the use of social media. The investigating officers or detectives have hit a brick wall with a particularly hard case where normally identity is an issue. Rather than just have 200 sets of eyes (the number of officers at KPF) looking to identify a suspect, we have the potential for tens of thousands assisting us. They have been as minor as theft cases to as big as those assigned to the Major Crime and Sexual Assault units. The response has been phenomenal from the community and we couldn't do it without them. I've said it before but this is a prime example of one of Sir Robert Peel's Principles of Policing, where he said, "The police are the public and the public are the police". Together we're making Kingston a safer place to live and work in.

Simply admit to it. We've heard every excuse in the book and it's almost insulting to hear these false appeals. We've heard I had to go to the bathroom, I was almost out of gas, I have a warm pie I didn't want to get cold, etc. I recall a male driver being especially rude and stating the all too familiar, "Don't you have anything better to do?". I then went over the radio to our dispatchers and asked if there were any calls in queue I should be attending. Right in front of the guy the female Communications employee sweetly answered the queue was empty. I gave the guy a look, he put his head down and he received his speeding ticket.