OPP officer charged with falsifying traffic stops.

[mazdubb]

http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_34954.aspx

The OPP have arrested and suspended one of their own, after an officer was accused of laying charges against three different drivers for speeding or violating the new street racing law based on false evidence.

One was accused of exceeding the posted limit, while the other two were alleged to have violated the province's street racing law and had their licences suspended and their cars temporarily seized. The OPP Professional Standards Bureau won't say how they came across the accusations but admits all charges against the trio have since been withdrawn.

Insp. Dave Ross won't say what the motive might have been.

The allegations make other stops Sgt. Dennis Mahoney-Bruer may have been involved with suspect as well and a review of all his past cases is underway. Ross tells CityNews.ca that could keep investigators busy for a while - as many as 200 provincial cases and 50 criminal cases are being given a second look.

The 49-year-old cop has been a member of the force for 12 years and is based in Port Credit. His primary patrol area is the QEW and Highway 403.

The accused has been suspended from duty with pay and will appear in a Brampton court on July 13th. He's charged with three counts of breach of trust and one of obstructing justice.

Commissioner Julian Fantino, often cited as a 'cop's cop,' is disappointed by the outcome but says it's vital the public knows he won't stand for anything untoward in the ranks.

"It was important for the OPP to initiate an immediate investigation and a comprehensive review, with the intent to bolster safeguards, to prevent similar situations in the future," he notes in a statement. "I believe that the public trust is a fundamental cornerstone of the OPP and policing."

If you think you were unfairly stopped by this officer and have a complaint to make, call (905) 278-6131.

This is the exact scenario that people such as myself feared the street racing law was going to allow.

Discuss.

[Sylvestre]

worst part is that by doing this the cop is giving the lawyers ammunition to overturn the law.

[fastlayne]

wort part is that by doing this the cop is giving the lawyers ammunition to overturn the law.

I assume you were trying to type "worst part is that ..." and I would say that I hope that this incident eventually, if not immediately, results in the overturning of the law and its current roadside penalties.

[help_questions]

at least they caught this one.

[mazdubb]

I was lurking on another forum and noticed that someone googled this officers name out of curiosity and came up with this:

http://www.thestar.com/printArticle/274514

Drivers stunned by new speeding law

'When did this happen?' asks driver of Ontario legislation that kicked in more than a month ago

November 08, 2007
MICHAEL OLIVEIRA
THE CANADIAN PRESS

When Jason Stainthorpe was caught speeding on his way to church last Sunday, he figured the worst he was facing was a hefty ticket and some heat from his fiancee for being late.

Instead, he wound up stranded by the side of the highway, desperately trying to figure out how to tell her he'd just lost his licence and her SUV for a week, faced a fine that could run into the thousands and might no longer be able to afford his auto insurance.

He didn't realize it at the time, but doing 50 over the speed limit – 150 km/h on a highway with a posted limit of 100 km/h – meant Stainthorpe had run afoul of a stringent new speeding law in Ontario, billed as a tough measure to combat street racing.

Stainthorpe joined the more than 1,300 drivers who have been nailed since the new law took effect on Sept. 30, all of whom were off the road for a week and faced the possibility of a staggering fine that ranges between $2,000 and $10,000.

The ranks of those caught under the new law are hardly the street-racing type: They run the gamut from teenaged girls to elderly men and just about every demographic in between.

The most common age of offenders has been 21, the average age is 30, and half the charges have been laid against drivers 26 and under. About 13 of the drivers were 65 or older, and 41 were 17 or younger. Almost 84 per cent were male and 16 per cent were female.

When police lobbied for the new law, they expected the province's most aggressive drivers would get caught and hopefully learn a lesson. They didn't anticipate the number of charges would be so high and represent every segment of the driving public.

Stainthorpe, a 33-year-old registered nurse, admitted he was speeding, but was furious that police wouldn't let him off with a warning since he had never heard of the new law.

"I certainly would not have been doing 50 over if I knew this was going to happen to me," he fumed as he waited for police to finish his paperwork on the side of Highway 403 in Mississauga.

"I have three kids, I have to go to work for a week and they just do not give a crap. They have no sympathy for people and it's unfair and they treat people like crap."

About an hour after a shell-shocked Stainthorpe tried to come to grips with his dilemma, police stopped another vehicle going 155 km/h on the same highway – this time a 34-year-old woman with three pre-teen kids in the car.

"Look, I was speeding," said the inconsolable woman, who declined to give her name, as she waited for a taxi.

"I expected a ticket, and then I was like, `Oh, crap.' I did not expect to have my car towed and have them leave my nephews and I no way to get home."

She told the officers on the scene she was driving a brand new car, and didn't feel her speed climbing until she heard the sirens behind her.

Ontario police Sgt. Dennis Mahoney-Bruer has heard that excuse too many times, and after hearing the same thing over and over – he's even watched grown men bawl their eyes out in front of him – his sympathy is wearing thin.

"A little indication (is) if you're going down the highway and you're passing everybody – hello, chances are you're speeding," Mahoney-Bruer said, before adding that some excuses do tug on his heart strings and make him pause before calling a tow truck.

"We're all human, we all have a certain amount of feelings . . . but we have that rule now and we're really sticking to it. We really want to get the message to the people out there that you're not going to talk your way out of this."

The relentless blitz on speeders – dubbed a "shock-and-awe" campaign by provincial police Commissioner Julian Fantino – is likely catching drivers by surprise because people often don't acknowledge that they act dangerously on the road, said Spencer McDonald, the founder of Thinking Driver, a road-safety program designed for people who drive for a living.

"Culturally we all have a higher opinion of our own driving than it actually is, thinking we're better than we really are," McDonald said.

"If you go speeding down the road you can say, `Well, I'm not a bad person, or I'm not an idiot, I'm just simply late for a meeting,' but when the guy speeds past you down the road, he's an idiot."

A forthcoming report from Transport Canada also finds that most drivers don't recognize their own bad habits, and the unfortunate power they have to kill with their car, said Paul Boase of the Canadian Association of Road Safety Professionals.

"For a very long time, speeding – while illegal – was not really treated as a problem," Boase said.

"When people thought about speed and risk, they thought about the risk of getting caught, but the real risk is hitting someone."

And because the new law is classified as a street-racing offence, Boase said many drivers don't believe they're being targeted by police and think they can continue to speed at will.

"There's definitely this perception that street racing is a real serious problem and we ought to hit those people hard, but drivers say, `That's not me, even if I'm doing 50 over that's not me because I'm not racing, I'm just trying to get home."'

There's no doubt some of the offenders are habitual speeders, but it's also likely that some of them were simply unlucky, and were caught using bad judgment that may not reflect their normal driving style, McDonald said.

"Most people are sane, responsible, law-abiding drivers, but they will – when placed under stressful or difficult circumstances – make inappropriate decisions and expose themselves to excessive risk."

While an average of 35 drivers continue to get nabbed every day – and that average has dipped only slightly since the law took effect – many have wised up and are now remaining just below the 150 km/h threshold, Mahoney-Bruer said.

"The last two night shifts when I went out exclusively looking for 50 km/h and above I had none," he said. "The highest speed I had was 48 over, so definitely the knowledge is getting out there."

Brian Lawrie, president of Pointts, which bills itself as Canada's original and most successful traffic court agency, said the new law may bring him more business, but he considers it a bad idea that could cost someone their job because of human error or an equipment malfunction.

"It sounds good to everybody that doing 50 over should be punished right on the spot, but where does the presumption of innocence go when you do that?" Lawrie said.

"When we finally find out that . . . the person is found not guilty, then who gives them their job back?"

Ontario's new transportation minister, Jim Bradley, said he has no qualms about the law and rejects the idea that most people don't know about it.

"I see signs on the highway about it, it's been in the newspaper, it's been on the radio, it's been on television," he said.

"I think people know. It's an excuse that people try to use, and it's never an excuse not to know what the law is."

[B0000rt]

http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_34954.aspx

This is the exact scenario that people such as myself feared the street racing law was going to allow.

Discuss.

I bet the accused were driving Honda Civics and realized they can't ever go that fast

[jedijome]

this is exactly the scenario that i was afraid of when this law came out. :S
thankfully they caught this guy and using him as an example they can overturn all the other cases.

this is a useless law that should never have been passed. give out a 5000 dollar ticket if you want for 50km/h over but someone that's accused should always have their day in court.

[sbobcat]

It is the system that design to screw every regular joe out there. they tie up the cops 's overtime with the tickets they issued, they don't care the citizens get screw by losining their time, paying the fine and facing the jump on their insurances next year. All these cops want is sitting the the court for 2 to 3 hour of their 150 dollar + overtime pay. Those cop has no shame to doing so. The city just want the money to spend them nonsensely like expand the Jarvis bike path to get them more tickets/income.

The police has the man powers sitting in the school zone at the sunday morning to the net someone just over 20km, but no cop want to partrol the jane/finch. No wonder why there isn't many co-operative/trust from the citizens when the police pulling the stunt like that.

vince

[m4gician]

wort part is that by doing this the cop is giving the lawyers ammunition to overturn the law.

it won't overturn the law, it may force policy makers to examine how defendants can defend themselves (giving us the right to speed again and deny deny deny later).

I hope they release HOW this was looked into, so it sets a precedent so in the event I do want to blatantly break the law, I can defend myself.

[Piro21]

I'm betting one or more of this guy's victims had a dashboard cam like cop cars have. The government deserves the trouble this will cause for removing the right to due process. It just sucks that the taxpayers will end up paying for the government's stupidity in the end when the peope wrongly accused get paid.

[Avatar]

The bad apple must be from here...



Time to install a video cam or something in your car to catch these guys. Heard so many of the stories these days.

[camber]

We told you so.

I think that comes to mind

It only took a 3 people complaining before someone in the OPP took the charges of falsifying evidence for HTA 172 serious. Makes you wonder how many other people this officer has wronged and how many other officers are doing the same thing and getting away with it. It would suck to be the one guy an officer decides to power trip out on in a year and falsifies evidence to get your car.

I mean.... They did get rid of the whole due process thing and gave all the power to the police with no oversight. Nothing bad comes from that

This is a prime example of why the power to effectively convict should not be placed in the hands of law enforcement officers.

[Kellster]

http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_34954.aspx



This is the exact scenario that people such as myself feared the street racing law was going to allow.

Discuss.

Good on him!!! Now finish the job by CONVICTING him as well. Come on, Fantino, PROVE that everybody is treated equally under the law.

PROVE that just because one of your little Nazi cops says something, it doesn't always mean that it's true.

[Jucius Maximus]

worst part is that by doing this the cop is giving the lawyers ammunition to overturn the law.

I think this is the best part of it. As the OP mentioned, the real problem is that some cops will abuse the law.

I think that police are like everyone else. Some are good, many are average, some are bad.

[Buggy166]

getting your car impounded for 7 days and leaving someone stranded is the most ******** thing about this law. 50 over is big issue on normal streets. 50 over on a highway? not so much when 70% of traffic goes at 120+.

They should leave the law intact (minus the impounding) for regular streets (no one needs to do 100 in a 50 zone) and up it at 70km over for the highway or abolish it completely. left lane drivers constantly move at 135-145 to pass slower cars in the middle lane that drive too slow and also block traffic if driving paralel with the right lane cars at the same speed (80-100)