Submitted by Staff Sgt. Darren Simons
It is so easy to mistakenly dial 911. I know from my work phone I have to dial 9 to get out, then 1 if it is long distance and it can be so easy to hit 1 twice. I do not know why they make us dial 9 to get out when there are so many other numbers. That said, I am just a small cog in the wheel and will continue to investigate and monitor investigations involving 911 being聽called by accident. We had two such calls this week, one was caused by someone playing with a friend鈥檚 phone and the other was likely caused by children playing with the phone. We also responded to two false alarms.
There are these medium size and large yellow vehicles on the road. They are hard not to see, although, you will find out later in the report someone drove into one, thus the reason I did not say 鈥渉ard not to miss鈥� being someone hit one. You see them mostly in the morning and afternoon. They transport our children and they have blinking lights on them, as well as stop arms that extend. It does not matter which side of the road you are on, if you see the stop arm out, you stop!!. You wait, and if you have to wait too long for your liking, too bad. The reason we as a society have had to put the stop signs and stop arms on school busses is a lack of common sense. If you are not sure what to do, drive the other way, avoid the school bus and school bus zones totally. Whatever you do, do not pass a school bus with its stop arm out, in either lane.
We continue to do our condition checks on those that were released awaiting trial and those that are on conditions after a criminal conviction. Pretty simple, comply and you do not go back to gaol. (not a spelling mistake, I use the British / Canadian spelling of the word, not the American spelling) For those who travel to Winterpeg you will note you pass by Gaol Road so I am not alone.
We had an assault reported which was from a dispute between聽an individual and his聽landlord which appears to revolve around the fact the landlord does not like that the tenant may be selling illegal drugs. No charges are warranted and we will continue to investigate all the allegations.
An individual showed up to the Detachment to surrender themselves on warrants from Regina. We cleared the warrants up and聽the individual was released.
An individual reported their common law attended their home and took some property. Apparently they are going through a break up. The individual聽also wanted us to apprehend the vehicle. Now here is what we can and can not do.聽OK, we can鈥檛 really do anything because the property in any common law, or marriage is mutual property. It does not matter who pays the bills, who registered the vehicle, who bought the property. It is mutual property. Thus, we can鈥檛 help, which in reality is a great thing being we don鈥檛 want someone to stay in a relationship聽because of a controlling spouse.聽
While clearing up a warrant, which we like to do the day before or the day of court, we found an individual breaching their release conditions. We did not charge them for this, however, they did receive a 40 day sentence for their outstanding charges. Hopefully they can obtain some help for the addictions issues.
We are investigating a theft from outside a residence. Footprints in the snow聽lead to a suspect and (refer to next paragraph)
Traffic Members from Weyburn, Estevan, Carlyle and Carlyle Detachment Members did a search warrant. This was the result of much intelligence gathering to compile the warrant. Some drugs and stolen property聽were located. Charges under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act were laid and the individuals were released, as well as one individual received a charge of possession of stolen property. Apparently this was the last straw for the landlord and the tenants are looking for a new place to reside.
Members responded to a call of a white truck driving in an erratic manner. Unfortunately we did not find the white truck in question. Their time will come, hopefully it will not result in a fatality or injury.
Breakups can be nasty, especially when there is a family run business. Members investigated allegations of harassment. The dynamics of these files always amazes me. Blood may be thicker than water but sometimes it is the in law鈥檚 that are your ally when you least expect it. I personally think my mother in law would take my side.......well, I don鈥檛 think my wife reads these articles so I am pretty comfortable saying that.
We had an individual call 911, worried being they did not know when they last saw their spouse. It did not take our Member long to bring this file to some resolution. Unfortunately the elderly caller is dealing with dementia and although we don鈥檛 know how long it has been since they saw their spouse we did talk with someone who helped the caller out.
Recently an individual received a ticket for having an obscured licence plate. That individual complained about it and it resulted in a Councillor complaining to a Police Officer. Yes, we agree it is a cheesy ticket. That said one must know there is a 鈥淩est of the Story鈥�. You see the violator聽was given the choice of a $360 open liquor ticket or the $100 obscured licence plate. They chose the cheaper ticket. Maybe we should not use as much discretion........nah, we will keep giving out reduced tickets and give people fictitious things to complain about. The thing is we must give out tickets. It is our duty.
I know most people like the Police......OK, maybe I have a vivid imagination......however, what always amazes me is when people complain about us hiding in the parking lots of their place of business. Would you not think having a patrol vehicle near your place of business would be a good thing? Recently one of our Members had found a good place to hide and conduct speed enforcement. After dealing with a violator they returned to find that a trailer had been moved to prevent the Police Officer from hiding their police car at the location. This happens more often that you would think. I even know of a situation where someone complained about a Member parking a patrol vehicle in front of聽the complainants聽residence. What is ironic was, yes it was in front of the complainants residence, however, it was across from the Police Officer鈥檚 residence, parked legally I might add.
It was a busy week for collisions for our Detachment.聽 We had one with a moose which resulted in the聽death of the moose and extensive damage to the vehicle, one where a tire came off a vehicle (check your lug nuts), another where a vehicle lost control on icy roads, one with an empty school bus which was caused by someone driving too fast for road聽conditions聽and an unfortunate collision resulting in one fatality and two injuries which appears to have been the result of a vehicle hitting a snow drift and losing control.
Did you know it is illegal to chase wildlife. We have had a report of snowmobilers chasing deer. The evidence is limited, however, it is worthy to remind everyone not to chase wildlife.
Tickets were issued for fail to produce registration - $100 (this was in lieu of a $150 fail to have registration on a trailer), no insurance - $580, fail to wear a seatbelt - $175聽exceed the speed limit in a school zone - $270 and聽the most expensive speeding ticket was for $570 (and it was reduced)
Warnings were issued for speeding, unregistered trailer, fail to stop at a stop sign, and cell phone use (dealt with by off duty Member)
Inspection notices were issued for windshields, repair licence plate lights, service dash airbag, window tint, daytime running lights and headlights.
