By Staff
May 4th, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
There is some pretty progressive thinking going on within the Halton Region Police Service. Not a place where creative ideas normally come from.
Constable Dave Stewart convinced the people higher up on the food chain than he is that clerks who work at the drive thru windows at fast food outlets are really front line observers of the condition of the person behind the wheel.
The young men and women get closer to the face of a driver than most police officers do should they pull you over.
Stewart came up with the idea of training these men and women to serve as observers and if they see something that even suggests a driver might be impaired – make a 911 call – the police will follow up.
Every one of the 36 drive through operations in Burlington chose to take part in this pilot project.
Training the young men and women took place this morning.
Some of the graphics material handed out is amongst the best the Gazette has seen in some time.
The video that was used to train people is very close to commercial grade. Check it out.
Well done to the police service.
Interesting on the videos that there was no discussion around persons with medical issues (e.g. Parkinson’s; Multiple Sclerosis) who may exhibit jerky and uncoordinated movements, and how, sometimes, their physical mannerisms may appear to an untrained observer, like intoxication. Also, no discussion around persons with mental health issues, and how their unusual behaviours may appear to mimic someone who is “high” on drugs. We’ve seen a number of instances where persons with medical conditions or mental illness issues were misdiagnosed by the police. There have been several instances in Toronto, Ottawa, and in the United States where the police didn’t know how to handle these situations, and, in fact, incorrectly evaluated the situation, overreacted, and where people were killed.
If you look at the Emojis someone who is suffering from medical issues could conceivably: a) have slurred speech; (b) have trouble conversing; (c) have difficulty handling money; (d) appear sleepy. So it’s not clear: does a patron have to exhibit all or just some of the symptoms before the police get called? And when they pull over innocent patrons with medical issues does that constitute harassment?
Some enterprising civil rights lawyer is going to have a field day with this.