olice work would be a lot easier if officers and other personnel didn't have to spend so much time and resources on hoaxes and false alarms.
P Last and bones were left on a Victoria beach. Although police month, children's shoes filled with meat were quite certain it was a sick joke, they had to investigate. Analysis determined a hoax was in play and that no human remains were involved.
This week, officers investigated an Internet classified advertising site that offered a baby free to a good home. Police are certain the person posting the notice is not in Victoria, and the ad has been removed.
On Monday, a transit driver found a package on the lower deck of a double-decker bus during rush hour and called police, who cordoned off a city block near the B.C. legislature and rerouted buses. The Victoria Police Department's bomb technician and a bomb-sniffing dog checked out the package, and decided it warranted further examination.
The whole area was shut down for several hours as the RCMP Explosive Disposal Unit ferried over from Vancouver, finally arriving at about 11 p.m. The package was X-rayed and determined to pose no danger. It was found to contain sunglasses, a T-shirt and a friendly note to the intended recipient of the package. It was a costly incident, considering the number of officers required to check the package, evacuate the area, redirect traffic and stand watch over the scene.
Add in the cost of bringing a bomb squad to the Island and you have a big hit to the public purse.
The package-on-the-bus incident was entirely innocent, a simple oversight by someone who likely could not have imagined the consequences, but the police did not overreact - they are absolutely required to assume the worst and act accordingly. To do otherwise is not an option, especially considering the package was found on the day before the 11th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Think of it as a price we pay for globalization.
The other incidents are not innocent at all. They cannot be written off as mere pranks - anyone who knowingly causes police to embark upon an investigation through false statements or contrived actions can be charged with public mischief under the Criminal Code of Canada.
Const. Mike Russell of VicPD said these incidents are time-consuming because each one has to be taken at face value until proved otherwise.
"It all comes down to public safety," Russell said. "We can't take chances with that." He said the department can't skimp on the resources assigned to such an incident because "a lot of bad things can happen."
He said the department has started a new dispatch scenario in which it maps crimes and assigns officers to crime hot spots so police resources are used more efficiently. Being proactive and preventing crime is a better use of police resources than being reactive, he said.
Pranks and false alarms detract from that effort. Many of those false alarms are abandoned or accidental 911 calls, and all such calls have to be checked.
"The main resource-drainer is if a phone is not a land line," Russell said. "It takes significant resources to track down a 911 call from a cellphone. So if you dial it by accident, stay on the line, and we'll send an officer to make sure you're all right. That's better than spending four hours driving around trying to ping a cellphone."
Accidental calls to dispatch and innocent false alarms are a fact of life for every police department - they don't need hoaxes to add to the load.
A conviction for public mischief carries penalties of up to five years in prison. More fitting, though, would be to hold pranksters liable for the costs of the subsequent investigation.
"Just kidding" doesn't cut it.
