Blue Line Magazine November 2011
Smiths Falls Police Service
Located in a triangle between Kingston, Montreal and Ottawa along the banks of the Rideau Canal waterway lies the historic Town of Smiths Falls. Given its proximity to these three cities, as well as to the United States and Highway 401, during the summer months the town sees its population of approximately 9000 people swell with vacationers and those just passing through. This was especially true in 2011 as the Town temporarily hosted over 600 emergency evacuees from Deer Lake First Nation, whose north-western Ontario community was blanketed in thick, heavy smoke from nearby forest fires.
Experience is the best teacher
The 'highlight of his policing career' is how Toronto Police Service (TPS) Insp. Paul Vorvis describes his nine month tour helping to train Afghan recruits and police as part of the NATO Training Mission Afghanistan (NTM-A).
"It's good to be back home and I'm proud of what we have accomplished as a group," he said. "I would encourage other police officers to consider doing it." Vorvis was part of an 11 person contingent from the TPS.
The Toronto Police Service had a history of working in war torn areas like Bosnia, East Timor and the Sudan but had a bad experience a decade ago. Somebody had gone over and served and when he came back had a lot of problems so they stopped participating in missions. Chief Bill Blair had a certain amount of trepidation when they once again began sending officers over to Afghanistan in 2008; he definitely did not want a repeat of what happened a decade earlier.
It appears TPS Chief Blair was listening to Vorvis. Since his return in August 2010 two more TPS groups have gone to work with the NTM-A. Now Blair said he is strongly considering increasing the force's participation.
Consider factors supporting dog sniff together
In determining whether police have sufficient grounds to use a drug sniffing dog, the test is not to look at innocent explanations for each individual factor but to step back and view the evidence as a whole.
Policing has a parallax view to consider
In a previous commentary I mentioned the parallax phenomenon. This is when your view of something is just as clear as everyone else but with a slight shift in angle. This attribute becomes apparent in policing around the world, as well as across a time continuum.