Advocacy & Safety - cardboard cops

Is this a good thing? At least the cops are pretending to give out speeding tickets.

I'm sure cardboard cops are cheaper than real cops, except of course if the real cops actually give out tickets, in which case the real cops are revenue generators.

http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/afp/20080606/capt.cps.mqn69.060608221344.photo00.photo.default-340x512.jpg

Canada deploying cardboard cops to nab speeders

OTTAWA (AFP) - Police in westernmost Canada are deploying life-size cardboard replicas of traffic cops pointing a radar gun at oncoming traffic to try to reduce speeding and road fatalities, authorities said.

And these mock-ups are so realistic that while being tested on a Vancouver street this week, "a tow-truck driver pulled up and started talking to it," Staff Sergeant Ralph Pauw told a press conference on Thursday.

Eight of the cut-outs will initially be deployed on city streets, Pauw said. And in case some drivers aren't fooled by the facsimiles, "there may or may not be a (real) police officer behind one of these cut-outs," he added.

The police initiative called Operation Silhouette follows similar trickery used elsewhere, including "bait cars" for thieves, fake intersection cameras and mechanical moose used by Canadian wildlife officers to nab poachers.

its a great idea, and it works.

and mechanical moose used by Canadian wildlife officers to nab poachers.

That's amazing.

Every little bit helps.

One of the small burgs up here parks the patrol car along the street on weekends, they have a cutout inside. The damn thing is made such that as you pass it, it seems to turn and watch you. Freakiest thing I've ever seen.

And these mock-ups are so realistic that while being tested on a Vancouver street this week, "a tow-truck driver pulled up and started talking to it," Staff Sergeant Ralph Pauw told a press conference on Thursday.



If Canada's tow-truck drivers are anything like the ones around here that isn't saying much.

Here's a picture that was in the local paper.

http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/media.canada.com/idl/vasn/20080606/46402-15421.jpg

the caption was:

GUESS WHICH OFFICER IS REAL: It's the one on the ***, shown with his replica partner Thursday on Knight Street. Police can deploy eight replica cops on the street.

I guessed wrong (but the newspaper is a two dimensional medium right? No wonder I couldn't get it right)

It would be funny, if when the cops came back to pickup the cardboard cop, someone had set up a cardboard speeder.... :D

Maryland State used to leave dummies in Police cars on the side of the road to 'remind' speeders. Later they had to add signs to the sides of the Police Cars to let folks know that it was a mannequin inside.

Some folks had stopped to let police know of an incident and thought they found a dead policeman.

I've known a couple of townships that leave old beater policecars near potential trouble speeding areas. It was better than the speed bumps they tried to pile-on the roads.

I wonder if I could make a few of my own and put them along my route to work.

I have seen a variety of "ploys' used. Recently in SC some guy got tired of speeders in his neighborhood, so he mocked up a rear end section of a State Police Crown Vic, complete with taillights, said it worked pretty good. I am for anything that will get people to slow down, getting them to think about it is another story....:(

Aaron:)

Looks like a traffic disrupting paintball target to me. The kids are gonna love 'em. There will be a cardboard cop in every dorm room.

Surely this will upset the donut industry lobby?