Paper tigers, indeed
A life-size replica of a Vancouver traffic cop pointing a radar gun at oncoming traffic was unveiled Thursday on city streets.
The police force has up to eight replica cops that initially will be deployed on Knight Street to try to reduce speeding and traffic fatalities.
Maybe Vancouver should have spent a little less on its 2010 Olympic plans, if it’s cutting into the police budget. Or perhaps the money was spent on “safe injection” sites. Either way, it seems like a bit of a desperate attempt at control by a city that has completely dropped the ball.
The fake officers were relatively inexpensive to make, Pauw said.
“We got the city sign shop to put them together, so it’s really only the cost of the plastic,” he said, adding the cardboard is covered in rainproof plastic, so any graffiti just wipes off.
I’m sure that will be very comforting to someone with car trouble or who is lost, and wants to turn to their local constabulary for assistance. I’m sure the citizenry is thrilled at the use of their tax dollars for fake cops.
D’you think the fake ones are unionized, too?
I wonder if it ever occured to them, that if they want to discourage speeding on the street, put some REAL cops out there with REAL radar guns and give out REAL speeding tickets. If the problem is as bad as they say it is, the revenue from the tickets should more than cover the cost of the wages and equipment used, with the added benefit of making the street safer for the citizens.
They’re graffiti proof? ? ? ? This is a selling point? ? ? ?
Comment by Bytes — June 7, 2008 @ 8:08 am
I heard the police spokesman on cknw talking about this the other day, and had the same thought as Bytes. The Knight st. corridor is supposedly the most dangerous traffic route in the GVRD, and the rocket scientists in city hall and the police dept. think the answer is cardboard cutouts. They did a similar thing out in the boonies in BC some years ago, leaving older marked police cruisers at various locations by the roadside. You could often tell when that was what was ahead of you by the spray painted graffiti on the car, or the smashed windows. Is there nobody left at any level of public service that has any functioning brain? Here’s a bold prediction: No discernible result will occur, and the cutouts will be declared a success in a year or so.
Comment by JimN — June 7, 2008 @ 9:52 am
I’d rather go by fake one, not real one.
Comment by Mohammed The Teddy Bear — June 9, 2008 @ 5:58 pm