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19 hours ago, FrostyWinnipeg said:

20-30 Canadian stores over the next few years. That's pretty ambitious and risky taking on that many leases and that much capital investment. 

As is with all box stores - distribution is king. If you can get the product on the shelves, you have a chance to succeed. If not, you're DOA. 

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58 minutes ago, blue_gold_84 said:

Totally ridiculous. What idiot in this country thought it was appropriate to give cops the power to demand breath samples without cause?  

Abaolutely absurd.   Can’t wait for someone to take that to the Supreme Court and win. 

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Just now, NorthernSkunk said:

I can see them walking around the rum hut one day with a breathalyzer in hand lol....

How about this, someone is assaulted so they knock on every door in a community and demand a semen sample without suspicion.  

The mere suggestion of providing this without cause is completely absurd.  Its one of those things where most people say "so what, dont drink and drive" but wait until they get that knock at the door.

The check stop program was practically useless this year anyway.  Either people are simply being more responsible or the cops' strategy isnt working in focusing on times/areas where people drink & drive.  Its an excuse to set up a ticket trap, which was by far the largest result of the check stop program.  Meanwhile, this massive use of police resources to capture virtually no drunk drivers, the program to look for people using their cell phone at drive thru's and car washes....and the meth fuelled crime wave continues.

I'd toss this Chief and anyone else responsible to the current police direction out and start fresh.  Stop designing police strategy with a focus on generating revenue and start focusing on crime prevention.

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6 minutes ago, The Unknown Poster said:

I'd toss this Chief and anyone else responsible to the current police direction out and start fresh.  Stop designing police strategy with a focus on generating revenue and start focusing on crime prevention.

They need the revenue to help massively over pay for all the OT they dish out.  

Unfortunately because of the legal system so many guys have to waste time driving around and doing checks and playing baby sitter that it leaves much less resources for fighting the real crime.   

I put the blame more on the legal system then the WPS itself. 

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41 minutes ago, Brandon said:

They need the revenue to help massively over pay for all the OT they dish out.  

Unfortunately because of the legal system so many guys have to waste time driving around and doing checks and playing baby sitter that it leaves much less resources for fighting the real crime.   

I put the blame more on the legal system then the WPS itself. 

Binding arbitration has caused the police/fire salaries to rise at an unsustainable rate. They get pay increases, contract to contract, without any bench marking against cost of living. It's completely ridiculous. 

 

If you even have a chance to listen to the chief negotiator for the city, a former union negotiator, he has quite the presentation with statistics and projections. 

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5 minutes ago, JCon said:

Binding arbitration has caused the police/fire salaries to rise at an unsustainable rate. They get pay increases, contract to contract, without any bench marking against cost of living. It's completely ridiculous. 

 

If you even have a chance to listen to the chief negotiator for the city, a former union negotiator, he has quite the presentation with statistics and projections. 

Absolutely.  Its one of those politicized things where people are afraid to say the cops are paid too much because the answer is always "how much is your life worth?"  Well, sorry, but the requirement to be a cop is a High School diploma.  And we know there are lots of cops ranging from outright corrupt to merely "pricks" (who unfortunately sully the reputation of the really good cops).

The pay scale is out of whack and the OT is ridiculous.  But there seems to be little will to overhaul police services to get cops back on the front lines stopping crime and bringing criminals to justice.

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2 minutes ago, The Unknown Poster said:

Absolutely.  Its one of those politicized things where people are afraid to say the cops are paid too much because the answer is always "how much is your life worth?"  Well, sorry, but the requirement to be a cop is a High School diploma.  And we know there are lots of cops ranging from outright corrupt to merely "pricks" (who unfortunately sully the reputation of the really good cops).

The pay scale is out of whack and the OT is ridiculous.  But there seems to be little will to overhaul police services to get cops back on the front lines stopping crime and bringing criminals to justice.

The issue is the binding arbitration and what the arbiter considers as part of the negotiations. It's wacky. Doesn't matter what anyone says, the arbitration rights are secured.

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2 hours ago, The Unknown Poster said:

How about this, someone is assaulted so they knock on every door in a community and demand a semen sample without suspicion.  

The mere suggestion of providing this without cause is completely absurd.  Its one of those things where most people say "so what, dont drink and drive" but wait until they get that knock at the door.

The check stop program was practically useless this year anyway.  Either people are simply being more responsible or the cops' strategy isnt working in focusing on times/areas where people drink & drive.  Its an excuse to set up a ticket trap, which was by far the largest result of the check stop program.  Meanwhile, this massive use of police resources to capture virtually no drunk drivers, the program to look for people using their cell phone at drive thru's and car washes....and the meth fuelled crime wave continues.

I'd toss this Chief and anyone else responsible to the current police direction out and start fresh.  Stop designing police strategy with a focus on generating revenue and start focusing on crime prevention.

This particular law with DUIs is at the federal level, though. Canning the city's police chief wouldn't solve or change anything.

This waste of resources is happening across the entire country. I'm all for improving the state of local law enforcement but I think this has to be addressed at the national level for it to improve.

1 hour ago, The Unknown Poster said:

...the requirement to be a cop is a High School diploma.

Well, that's a bit of an oversimplification. Recruits are also required to take rigorous training and pass said training before actually being given a badge. I don't think a post-secondary education would make a difference.

I do agree on the OT being overly exorbitant, though. It's not at all a sustainable system.

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7 minutes ago, blue_gold_84 said:

This particular law with DUIs is at the federal level, though. Canning the city's police chief wouldn't solve or change anything.

This waste of resources is happening across the entire country. I'm all for improving the state of local law enforcement but I think this has to be addressed at the national level for it to improve.

Well, that's a bit of an oversimplification. Recruits are also required to take rigorous training and pass said training before actually being given a badge. I don't think a post-secondary education would make a difference.

I do agree on the OT being overly exorbitant, though. It's not at all a sustainable system.

The chief would dictate how the police members use the law.  And we've already seen a "net" system with them demanding breath samples from all motorists without cause.  And even doing that, they caught virtually no drunk drivers.  Total waste of time.

To compare it to another law, I was talking to someone about drones yesterday and there was a case up north where a drone user was charged with a crime and on its surface it seemed heavy handed until it came out the police responded to multiple complaints and gave the guy multiple warnings.  Thats an example of police using discretion.

The idea that the cops "know" you've committed a crime but the usual method of probably cause makes it difficult is too bad.  Its supposed to be hard to pin a crime on someone.  Being able to demand breath from anyone, anywhere, at any time is not only CLEARLY open for misuse, it can "officially" be used as a witchunt.  Which it was when demanding breath from ALL motorists at check stops.  Its wrong.  Its clearly wrong.  

But if police forces recognize this and ensure their officers dont abuse it, thats at least one step in the right direction.  Cops have been known to abuse their powers of arrest and detainment.  Giving them another thing that they can misuse is a bad idea.  Thats a legal thing not an enforcement thing and shouldn't reside with the front line police officers.

Many jobs require intensive training.  And dont pay what cops get paid.  No one disputes they require training.  But its an example of a very high paying job with great benefits, pension, early retirement that essentially requires no advanced education.  I know many cops and dont want to disparage them but a lack of advanced intelligent is certainly not an obstacle.    That's the point.  On the list of jobs that do not require a degree, its pretty high in terms of pay and benefit.

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To put it in perspective..   you can spend the resources going after the small time bad guys robbing the Liquor Mart, peddling small time drugs ,  assaulting people etc...    You can spend a lot of money and time focusing on those kinds of crimes.   Unfortunately the end result because of our legal system is those criminals are in the Remand Centre for a few days ,  released on the promise to appear,  get a ridiculously light slap on the wrist and back out causing the same crimes the next weekend.    

On the other hand nailing drunk and distracted drivers, ticketing people will net results (money) so to help fund the crazy money it makes more sense for them to go after these kinds of issues.    

I'm not disagreeing but it does make sense on why they focus their attention on what many think is useless.

In Canada it really does pay to do crime because many crimes carry such light penalties that the risk/reward heavily favours a career criminal.

 

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On 2019-01-10 at 2:43 PM, Brandon said:

To put it in perspective..   you can spend the resources going after the small time bad guys robbing the Liquor Mart, peddling small time drugs ,  assaulting people etc...    You can spend a lot of money and time focusing on those kinds of crimes.   Unfortunately the end result because of our legal system is those criminals are in the Remand Centre for a few days ,  released on the promise to appear,  get a ridiculously light slap on the wrist and back out causing the same crimes the next weekend.    

On the other hand nailing drunk and distracted drivers, ticketing people will net results (money) so to help fund the crazy money it makes more sense for them to go after these kinds of issues.    

I'm not disagreeing but it does make sense on why they focus their attention on what many think is useless.

In Canada it really does pay to do crime because many crimes carry such light penalties that the risk/reward heavily favours a career criminal.

 

I'd like to know the cost of the check stop program.  It can't be insignificant.  I saw a lot of people pushing back on social media when the numbers came out showing very few DUI offenses, asking about the cost to the public.

In regards to small crimes, I think you're spot on.  To see cops setting up programs to ticket drivers at drive thrus and car washes but not doing those same kind of operations to capture petty crime...you really see what the police have become.  Things like booze thefts, the province should either inject money into the police service or change their policy to allow security to actually intervene.

I remember from my bar days getting very mixed signals from police, more or less depending on who was on duty on any given night.  At times, we were mocked for calling the police and told to handle things ourselves (but then at times, were overly scrutinized when a patron said we roughed them up).  At other times, we were told always call the cops because thats what they're there for.

If there was a good civilian security force and businesses were willing to pay, you could nip a lot of this crap in the bud petty quick.  Petty crooks go where it's easy, not where they might get a broken nose and an arrest for stealing a bottle of cheap booze.

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