Councillor rides along with OPP
By Doug Beffort Area CouncillorWard 1

What an experience! I recently had the opportunity to spend an evening shift with Inspector Andy Karski of the Caledon OPP.

We started from the Caledon East detachment at 6 p.m. on a Thursday evening and ended our shift well after midnight. His role was to guide me through the occurrences experienced daily and nightly by our Caledon OPP officers. My role was to experience, first-hand, the task they faced each and every day. I did this to gain immediate knowledge of what our officers do, how they react to daily happenings in our Town and to understand more thoroughly the needs of the OPP as I sit on council and help to make decisions about the financial and other needs of our constables. I also wanted to understand the details of the job facing our officers so that I can respond more thoroughly when constituents call me to have more speed enforcement, more stop signs, changes to speed limits, requests for digital roadside signs and the myriad of other requests.

Thanks to this experience I have a much clearer understanding of what our officers do, what they experience and how proud we can be of the work they do.

My evening was filled with events. Even when there was a rare period of inactivity on the car radio Andy Karski switched to a mode that was designed to detect speeders, unsafe drivers and an opportunity to help everyone on the road know that Caledon OPP was watching. He was clearly not a tourist. He constantly searched for drivers without seatbelts. He observed driving habits from spending too much time in the passing lane to weaving to acting suspiciously by not wanting to come close to a new black and white, and for mechanical defects. His vigilance and training proved successful over and over. Andy, and the other officers who constantly reported their activities over the radio, detected a series of infractions from the usual speeding to driving while suspended to more serious offences. When drivers were stopped they were all treated with dignity and respect and the utmost of professionalism.

The opportunity to drive Highways 9, 10 and 50 were interspersed with the crackle of the radio as officers were assigned to attend to business and house alarms that went off, family disputes that required some attention and many other types of activities that had to be prioritized and monitored by so many professional men and women. All this while most of you watched TV, visited with your neighbours or slept confidently in your homes.

I came away from this experience with a new-found insight. I know now how safe I am in my rural home and how quickly my Caledon OPP will respond to a serious call to my home and to your home. I recognize now the constant state of readiness that each and every officer must face for each shift.

I can clearly articulate the absolute professionalism and quality of response to the public provided by this young and caring group of individuals that make up the team. I can state, without hesitation, that for each call received by our officers they react together to make sure the public receives the maximum amount of protection and to make sure that they protect one another.

We are in safe hands in Caledon. My thanks go out to Andy and his officers who greeted and treated me with the same respect that they greet and treat all members of the community.

You know, by now, that my focus is on supporting the OPP by becoming a partner in the need respond to the ever growing volume and speed of traffic in our neighbourhoods. We can all do our part. Get to know your local officers as they patrol Caledon on bikes, on foot and in the cruisers. Stop and say hello. They are proud of your community. Use Road Watch. Our officers support the program. Help them to identify and notify speeders and unsafe drivers. Try to visualize the entire Caledon community and the need for our OPP to prioritize their activities. They can't be on your road all the time. Andy and his officers have developed a North American recognized hot-spot program. Officers spend more time in these identified areas than others and the payoff has been tremendous.

We have fewer accidents and fewer deaths thanks to this creative program. Now we need to be creative in our support. If you have any creative and helpful ideas as to how we can promote safety in our community please pass them on to the OPP and your town representatives. I would appreciate any such comments to me at doug.beffort@caledon. ca.

Thanks Caledon OPP for a job well done!