Quote:
Originally Posted by Huntingwhale
I find that very hard to believe. No one on the entire decision making committee who chose these colours found it to be aggressive at all? No one found it to look a tad intimidating? CPS might have it's faults, but they aren't stupid. I believe they, at the very least, had an idea of the kind of reaction it would receive.
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Again, the reasons they switched
-Identity: Police agencies across the US and Canada all made the switch in the last decade, citing familiarity. Began with a US homeland security suggestion that all agencies go the these colours so that there was more similarities so the cars would look close to the same in different areas. That suggestion gained traction down south and trickled down into the supply as well. The idea was, no matter where you are, you see a black and white car, you know immediately it's the police. This caught on in Canada, with some agencies in Ontario switching in 2007, and over the next 5 years more and more started doing it as well such as Calgary, Edmonton, Victoria, Vancouver, Saint John, OPP and more.
-Cost: Buying a Black car and vinyl wrapping the door, then doing simple graphics, was much cheaper that the old design. Between $500 to $1000 per car, depending on the vehicle.
-Classic look: Going retro is all the rage these days, from sports jersey's to fashion. Police services across the continent, including Calgary, have used black and white in the past.
Now,
all that said, like table 5 just mentioned that covers intent, but not result. I still think it's stupid that people find it more intimidating but I will admit that it can certainly have that effect on people. I've never liked the black and white simply because it looks american and I'd prefer we have our own identity. But do we really need to throw thousands of dollars at this to change it again? Also, where were all of these negative opinions when the black and white first came out 3 years ago, and they were looking for feedback?
Again, I'd like for them to go for a simple effective look like the military police, but even more I'd prefer people to stop spending time and money on something so stupid and move on.
There are plenty of legitimate complaints to have against the police these days there's no need to make one up and try to claim they made this change on purpose to scare people.