Calgary Police Do Not Recycle Batteries

[Superflyer]

I love how people defend the fact that it is OK to use the lights and siren to get through traffic so that they can get a coffee a minute faster. How is this acceptable, I don't care if they had a stressful shift or not that does not give them the right to do that. The lights and sirens are for emergencies ONLY not to get through traffic faster because they don't like sitting in traffic.

Now don't get me wrong, I have respect for police, they do a hard job for crappy pay that I would never do in a million years, but with that job comes the responsability to do it well and properly. Like at my job I monitor our spam firewall to check spam that gets through every day and I have the ability to read every single email that comes into our comapny but I do not do it because people trust me to respect them and their privacy. And when police abuse their power it is the same as me reading everyones personal email.

[Traditional_Ale]

Originally Posted by McMack

Next time you see a police officer turning on his lights to go through an intersection, I think we can all now safely assume that he is rushing to get his batteries to the recycling depot before they destroy the earth.

(Beer on monitor...)

Lol!

[metallicat]

Originally Posted by Superflyer

I love how people defend the fact that it is OK to use the lights and siren to get through traffic so that they can get a coffee a minute faster. How is this acceptable, I don't care if they had a stressful shift or not that does not give them the right to do that. The lights and sirens are for emergencies ONLY not to get through traffic faster because they don't like sitting in traffic.

Now don't get me wrong, I have respect for police, they do a hard job for crappy pay that I would never do in a million years, but with that job comes the responsability to do it well and properly. Like at my job I monitor our spam firewall to check spam that gets through every day and I have the ability to read every single email that comes into our comapny but I do not do it because people trust me to respect them and their privacy. And when police abuse their power it is the same as me reading everyones personal email.

LOL, who knows if they even do that. Like it was mentioned, if a call gets cancelled and they shut their lights off, people start to automatically assume that they were just screwing around because they didn't want to wait in traffic.

[alltherage]

You're supposed to recycle old batteries?

I just used to eat them so i wouldn't have to charge my ipod.

[BlackArcher101]

Originally Posted by Superflyer

I love how people defend the fact that it is OK to use the lights and siren to get through traffic so that they can get a coffee a minute faster. How is this acceptable, I don't care if they had a stressful shift or not that does not give them the right to do that. The lights and sirens are for emergencies ONLY not to get through traffic faster because they don't like sitting in traffic.

First of all... how do you know they are using their lights just to get through traffic faster for a coffee run or a similar reason?

Are you basing this on seeing a police car stop at a red light, turn on his lights, go through the intersection then turn his lights off? If so, this is a common occurence. There are different levels of responses to a call. One of those responses is to travel with lights off, but when required to keep proceeding, they turn them on. Yes, they are skipping ahead, but what you don't realize is they are actually going to a call. Not all calls require lights and sirens blazing at all times.

[Superflyer]

Originally Posted by BlackArcher101

First of all... how do you know they are using their lights just to get through traffic faster for a coffee run or a similar reason?

Are you basing this on seeing a police car stop at a red light, turn on his lights, go through the intersection then turn his lights off? If so, this is a common occurence. There are different levels of responses to a call. One of those responses is to travel with lights off, but when required to keep proceeding, they turn them on. Yes, they are skipping ahead, but what you don't realize is they are actually going to a call. Not all calls require lights and sirens blazing at all times.

I am basing this on the fact that I saw them myself turn them on, go through the lights, go behind a Timies, turn them off and then stop in the parking lot.
And I doubt that they just happened to get the call canceled as soon as they got to the enterance of the Timmies or that there was a call at the Timmies, unless it came from someone saying there is only one boston cream left.

[J pold]

Originally Posted by HotHotHeat

Same plate number. Doubt me if you wish.

Last time I called 9-1-1 was when someone had vandalized one of our vehicles in front of our house. Took them almost 3 hours to show up on a Sunday afternoon. He had a fresh coffee in his hand when he came to the door too. Granted it wasn't a life or death situation, but coming to the door with coffee? Not allowed.

Wow that is your example as to why you don’t have respect for cops

Because they had a coffee in hand when they came to help you out?

Would you prefer them to have there guns drawn ready to hunt down the perpetrator? 911 is for emergencies not when your car is vandalized

[Ironhorse]

Originally Posted by Superflyer

I can vouch that this happens as I have seen it, actually twice. most recentlly was about two months ago, I was stopped at the lights on McNight just past deerfoot when a cop comes flying past us with his lights on and turns down the street to go to Canada Post depot, he then turns down the back road and turns off his lights and whips into the Timmies through the enterance that you are not allowed to as well.

Not recently, but I have seen this sort of behaviour happen before. Very uncool...

[kermitology]

Originally Posted by alltherage

You're supposed to recycle old batteries?

I just used to eat them so i wouldn't have to charge my ipod.

This doesn't make a word of sense..

I was a little frustrated with the cops who responded to a drunk driver in my condo parking lot a few days ago. He was passed out in his car, they woke him up, talked to him for a bit, let him go and he came back out 20 minutes later to continue driving.

[4X4]

Originally Posted by Superflyer

I love how people defend the fact that it is OK to use the lights and siren to get through traffic so that they can get a coffee a minute faster. How is this acceptable, I don't care if they had a stressful shift or not that does not give them the right to do that. The lights and sirens are for emergencies ONLY not to get through traffic faster because they don't like sitting in traffic.

Now don't get me wrong, I have respect for police, they do a hard job for crappy pay that I would never do in a million years, but with that job comes the responsability to do it well and properly. Like at my job I monitor our spam firewall to check spam that gets through every day and I have the ability to read every single email that comes into our comapny but I do not do it because people trust me to respect them and their privacy. And when police abuse their power it is the same as me reading everyones personal email.

Yes sir, Captain. It's great that a computer tech is deciding when a cop should and shouldn't be using his lights and sirens. I build houses, are you ready for my input on how you should protect your firewall? Didn't think so.

Step down, my friend. You don't know what you're talking about. And if you want to think about it for a second, there are plenty of reasons why a cop might put his lights and sirens on temporarily. How do you know that he's not just trying to be near a scene in case dispatch suddenly calls for backup? Or maybe he spots a suspicious vehicle ahead, runs the plate and then calls off the pursuit? Or maybe he just needs to take a dump? (ok, that's a joke) But seriously, I just find your post to be ignorant of alot of things that there's no way you know about from fixing firewalls all day.
I bet all you cop haters know exactly what goes on in a cruiser all day long and you're totally qualified to decide that cops are arbitrarily abusing their power.
And HHH, your story just sounds bogus because you claim that it was the same plate number. I may have believed you if you "busted" this cop with the much easier to read Unit#.

[Superflyer]

Originally Posted by 4X4

Yes sir, Captain. It's great that a computer tech is deciding when a cop should and shouldn't be using his lights and sirens. I build houses, are you ready for my input on how you should protect your firewall? Didn't think so.

Step down, my friend. You don't know what you're talking about. And if you want to think about it for a second, there are plenty of reasons why a cop might put his lights and sirens on temporarily. How do you know that he's not just trying to be near a scene in case dispatch suddenly calls for backup? Or maybe he spots a suspicious vehicle ahead, runs the plate and then calls off the pursuit? Or maybe he just needs to take a dump? (ok, that's a joke) But seriously, I just find your post to be ignorant of alot of things that there's no way you know about from fixing firewalls all day.
I bet all you cop haters know exactly what goes on in a cruiser all day long and you're totally qualified to decide that cops are arbitrarily abusing their power.
And HHH, your story just sounds bogus because you claim that it was the same plate number. I may have believed you if you "busted" this cop with the much easier to read Unit#.

OK so I am ignorant about this. My anology about police using their sirens and lights when they want and me being able to read people email is to point out the fact that in peoples jobs they are given tools that come with rules and not just to be done with what they want.
I know that they can flip them on to get through traffic to chase after people and I am OK with that, that is what they are ment for, if you would have read my previous posts you would see that I am annoyed when they use them for themselves.
I do not pretend to know what goes on in a cops job all day and I do not say that all cops abuse their power, I am just saying that I have seen it twice where they used their lights and sirens to get to a Timmies. I know this probally falls under the category of a few bad apples and that is why I do not say that every cop does this, just those two.

[Burninator]

Of course it's not possible to know when or how much police are using their lights for actual police work and when they are just trying to get a coffee faster. But police are people, and people have been known to abuse their power, police are no exception. I'm more than willing to give police the benefit of the doubt and assume that most of the time they are doing legitimate police work when they skip through lights, but not all the time.

[4X4]

Well, you guys make good points. I guess it doesn't bother me if they do use their lights for personal matters from time to time. Agree to disagree and sorry if I was a bit mean SF.

[Superflyer]

No problem 4x4.
I still like to think that cops are trust worthy and follow the law that they stand for, but like everything there are the jerks that make them look bad.

[McMack]

I thought I've heard stories of cops getting suspended for using their lights frivolously... might have been an ambulance driver.

[Flashpoint]

I like cops. I tell them that when I meet them. That is one of the tougher jobs out there, and I wouldn't want to be doing it. Just like any job, you are going to have a few losers out there. And every time one of them is an assclown, they taint everybody because they wear the same uniform, and drive the same car.

[jar_e]

Just curious...what type of batteries are you referring to? If you are referring to dry cells....from the city website....

Why aren't household "dry cell" batteries accepted in this program?


Regular household "dry cell" batteries are not a hazardous waste. That's why the year-round household chemical drop-off program doesn't cover them.
Many of the hazardous components used to make batteries in past decades have been greatly reduced or eliminated in modern batteries. Modern household batteries can either be recycled or are best disposed of in your regular garbage collection.
As an option, The City encourages Calgarians to use rechargeable batteries. These batteries are reusable and a North American wide program exists that recycles rechargeable batteries through the Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation (RBRC).
In Calgary, hundreds of locations accept rechargeable batteries for recycling free of charge. To find the rechargeable battery collection site nearest you visit the Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation (RBRC) Web site.

[Traditional_Ale]

Originally Posted by jar_e

Just curious...what type of batteries are you referring to? If you are referring to dry cells....from the city website....

Nickel cadmium, Lithium Ion, and Nickel Metal Hydrate are incredibly hazardous. Hell, Lithium Ion EXPLODES when it comes into contact with freaking water!

Perhaps that document was pertaining to dry-cell alkaline batteries, which I agree are manufactured mostly harmless nowadays. Still better to recycle them all though.

[onetwo_threefour]

I don't really care about this issue, but I will contribute anyway. I can confrim that cops do blow lights with sirens to go on break. How? I've gone on two eight hour ride-alongs and been in the car when it happened. Having said that, the cops that I rode with said they only did it when traffic was light and because they never know how long of a break they're going to have so they like to zip in as fast as possible. They can literally be called on an urgent call afer they have paid for their coffee or food but before they get it and have to run out the door and abandon their lunch. It doesn't happen too often, but it can.

I'm of mixed feelings about it. I've seen them do it when I thought it was a little risky based on traffic, but in general, I sympathize.

[Traditional_Ale]

Can we lock this thread already?

Its turned into a debate over the usage of Police sirens.