I actually laughed out loud at that tweet. What an entitled, self-gratuitous, and tone deaf individual for all the reasons already stated above. To be a Traffic SGT after 34 years and then complain about lack of support and that the job is "difficult" is an incredible admission of lack of personal accountability for his own career. He should be well up the chain of command and in a position to make real changes for the department and the city, but instead he's whinging on twitter of all places. What an absolute embarrassment to the badge.

By the way an RCMP officer was also wounded and his K9 partner stabbed and killed in Campbell River yesterday. Perspective.

It has nothing to do with moving into a management/larger roll.

Moving into a different department wouldn't require a change in responsibility, it would require them to attend higher risk calls, which they are clearly to scared to do, so they just coast as a traffic member collecting the same salary as the members that actually put themselves in harms way.
These pussies want the badge and salary but also want to do the least amount of work for it.

I can understand maybe going into traffic or something towards the tail end of your career, thats fair.. but to spend your entire career in a menial relatively safe position...
Theyre scared to do real police work, plain and simple.

I feel bad for members that would have to have cain or Christensen come support them on a priority 1 call if they needed help.
Id personally tell them "just stay back, real men/women are at work here."

It started before Stewart was voted into office. Moonbeam was still mayor when I got my VI

Yeah, if he hates it so much, then retire. He's already got a fat ass pension, not even sure why he's still hanging around...

The first stats to pop up in google were for Canada in 2016

Murders - 611
Car fatalities - 1898

So let’s be clear here, his job IS important and being a 35 year traffic cop still 10000% earns my respect. It’s an incredibly important area to patrol for a functioning and safe society.

Obviously that statement doesn’t bring more recent stuff into account (like this entire thread), but I think being so negative on traffic cops as a general is unfair. Do you guys also talk down to your Starbucks barista? Or the guy packing your groceries?

I think you're missing the point, although admittedly it's hidden behind some emotion in the posts above.

It's not disrespect to his position, it's to him because he's a shithead. And baristas and grocery store baggers are not in the same tier of professionalism as a LEO.

If a teacher - which is an important job that requires dedication, education, certification, etc. - was known to be a bitch teacher who went out of their way to mistreat students and unnecessarily make students' life difficult, then tweeted about how the school district doesn't provide support etc. and how hard their life is while earning 6 figure salaries & a pension, the students who know of or were subject to their shitty actions will not come up to defend them.

I'm betting none of those were caused because one of the involved vehicles had some form of aftermarket modifications though.

It's the way him and his traffic goons carry themselves and out for personal vendetta cause their feelings got hurt. I'm all for traffic cops busting people for excessive speeding, DUIs, distracted drivers to keep the streets safe.

But also fuck those traffic cops that camp on the viaduct and the bridges in/out of DT. Yeah its a 50km/h zone but most people do 60-70 and its easy tickets for them and does nothing to keep things "safe".

If that’s what you got from what I said you completely missed the point. Blackv62k2 is 100% on point

Are you sure? RCMP has to do 35.............. I would imagine that RCMP members would be hella angry if VPD guys maxed out 12 years earlier than them.

Does RCMP only get 2% pension per service year? If so, I'd be very surprised cuz I have always been under the impression that firefighters as well as the police earn 3% pension per year of service (Municipal, provincial, and federal employees, as I understand, are only entitled to 2% pension per year of service, but I'm sure you already know that.)

Bear in mind that meeting the full 70% pension requirement doesn't mean a person is entitled to start drawing on the pension -- IIRC, the earliest age to start tapping into that is still 55, it isn't until 60 yrs old when the pension payments don't get deducted. Also because of the way the salary used to calculate the monthly pension amount (average of highest 5 years of earning), there may not be any point to retire until you really start drawing the pension since the salary from those final 5 years are most likely going to be the highest.

So in Christensen's case, if he first joined the VPD at 25, even though he would likely have met the max 70% pension ceiling at 49 yrs old, he can't start drawing the pension until 55, and he can't draw into the pension without deductions until 60. If he is just cruising in his job, he might as well just keep working until the day he turns 60.

No I got the point, perhaps I could have phrased my response better. I share Blackv62k2's thoughts word for word. I was merely pointing out that these cops seem to think they're making a difference by handing all these VI's out as if it would drive a number like that down, when in reality they are not.

Your going to have mooches at every work place. Better to keep the lazy sheepish ones away from the action. The go getters will do better work anyhow. Just hope the guy retires as soon as he can. I had a small jokingly interaction with the guy once, he’s a tool. Takes himself way too seriously. I got him to lighten up a bit but man, chill out and grab the golf clubs already.

is the tweet tone deaf and whiny, sure

but to imply speed trap is a bitch's work and holding a relatively safe position as if it's a bad thing?

...wait who wouldn't want that? maybe he has kids and they come before hOnOuR?

and to suggest they should only be issued pepper spray is ridiculous..had someone we know get shot in the face during a traffic stop

Because it is bitch work, JSS is right.

The majority of speed traps are just that -- traps, cash grabs. Setting them up on Marine Drive, pass-through roads with arbitrarily low speed limits that no one actually follows.

Much of my family live out on the Sunshine Coast, and that one hill leading down to the ferry where the speed limit changes from 80KM to 50KM on a heavy slope, and traffic cops would setup shop, essentially fucking every person coming down the hill.

No one has ever been hurt there, it's not a pedestrian traffic area in the slightest. Same idea with the hill leading down Boundary to Marine.

It's those types of tactics that piss people off, and trigger a post like JSS made.

The other problem is the pure hypocrisy of some officers. I hang out with a few friends that are RCMP/Transit cops. They talk about being bored on shift at night (specifically a transit cop buddy), and pulling people over for DUIs, speeding, etc.

These same guys will not hesitate for a second to go out for drinks (a bunch at that) and drive home thereafter, without a single concern.

It's the hypocrisy -- the guise of being sanctimonious and above the public and beyond reproach is what pisses people off here.

If we’re talking about insulting speed traps, I’d say northbound Massey tunnel where it goes from 100 down to 80, is 5 lanes wide AND divided, with a perfectly straight line of sight for 3km or whatever. I understand during counter-flow or rush hour times, but multiple times I week I see them camped in the afternoon or on weekends. Get fucked

Just got a letter in the mail, speed camera caught me doing 81 in a 50 zone. Going downhill on willingdon ave and Deer lake parkway. At least there are no points attached to the ticket. First speeding ticket in years.

a wild brake pedal appears

when you approach almost triple digits in the city regardless of grade/slope, expect tickets

if you get nabbed doing 62 and it's your first one in 5+ years then yeah that sucks, but if it's at the same location twice, too bad so sad

SSC causeway there's a sign telling you 50kph limit is coming up

georgia viaduct wtf do you need to do 90 leaving downtown vancouver when you're gonna be held up at main/terminal anyways? or prior st the next block is set at 30kph

believe it or not, people actually live on boundary, there's bus stop there too, like 30ft from the fishing hole.
the funniest thing is they've been there for at least 15 years, if no one's following them then they're doing their job, enforcing the law

The problem is the speed limit is out of date. And CoV pushing the limit down to 30km/h is just pure cash grab. Pedestrian safety is important, educate them not to jaywalk.

Another example Garden City Road north of Westminster Hwy was 60km/h and got lowered to 50 a couple years ago. No reason doing so.

Lastly, vehicle brakes had also greatly improved over the years and creating inefficiency (lower speed limits) just working backward.

The 'status quo' for speed limits was set in the 1960's and 70's. That's before seat belts, airbags, disc brakes, modern tire technology, and all other safety advancements in vehicle design from bumpers to radar based sensor systems. The speed limits are well past out of date.

Not all but the VAST majority of speed traps are set up in places where the police know damn well the speed limit does not reflect the flow rate of traffic, and/or they pray on downhill stretches were speed can insidiously get away from the driver by a few KM/H while posing no danger. They really are traps, and are a source of revenue for the city/province and the 'enforcement' is used as justification for budgets of ICBC and police departments. It's blatantly obvious that they have nothing to do with public safety and that's what erodes public trust.

Another horrible speed trap is on the crows nest heading west out of manning park. Like 30km of single lane switchbacks, then a 1km passing lane downhill, then back to 30km of single lane switch backs. Speed is 90 IIRC. So you’ll be stuck behind a camper and solid double yellow lines doing 55kmh, but once they reach the downhill passing lane they speed up to 110kmh, so the only chance you get to pass you have to FLOOR IT.

Cops are always sitting there and begging to hand out excessive tickets. Fucking ruthless with zero humility

Additional - VI -

Friday/Saturdays 11:00PM - 4:00AM:

VPD has 6-10 vehicles performing:

Counter-attack drink & driving, Vehicle inspections checks

East & West Bound Terminal Ave/Clark - bridge by Homedepot

East Bound - Prior Street

East Bound - Cordova Street

Construction Zone 30km limit - Clark/Venables.

Buster's Tow Yard behind - Tim Hortons (Terminal/main) is doing a lot of business

They're mostly on Terminal weekly and will catch people doing U-turns before
the screening area.

remarkable amount of bootlickery in this thread recently

I've always just thought to myself, if the speed limits are so low, then people get slower (Canadian culture is already slow in general) and they start to lose focus more easily in high traffic. I don't know how awake most of you guys are after work, but I'm sure you would be less alert and more tired the longer you are stuck in traffic, which as a result, possibly more accidents.

Now imagine if traffic speed was faster and everyone was always alert, how would that turn out...

Not trying to be facetious but I think Germany managed to address this need by way of the autobahn.

For an East Coast perspective (namely Toronto) the speed limits here generally are higher on some stretches at 70 to 80KM depending on where you are. Some highways are still 90 - 100km/h but a majority of people are running between 110km/h and 120km/h (sometimes 130 - 135km/h) Local streets are still 50 - 60km/h and there's really no way around that, but a majority of the time, people still pull 70km/h through them. Go any slower and you chances are people wont' be very Canadian anymore.

The best is when you are on an 8 lane highway and someone is on the far left lane and decides they need to take the exit last minute. Just like in the episode of Family Guy, this is real life in Toronto.
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