-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Photo radar corruption scandal
Date: Wed, 21 Sep 2005 09:53:38 -0500
From: Richard Diamond <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: declan@well.com
Edmonton police deliberately used a restricted database to gather
information on a journalist who wrote anti-camera columns. With the
information, cops tried to set up a sting to arrest him for drunk
driving. Except some pesky journalists happened to have police scanners
and blew the lid off of the operation. (And this is just one of three
photo radar scandals in the city!)
http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/06/662.asp
Testimony Heard Regarding Edmonton Police Attempt to Arrest Journalist
9/21/05
New details emerged Tuesday in a Royal Canadian Mounted Police inquiry
into an Edmonton Police Service attempt to arrest a newspaper columnist
over articles that criticized the police. On November 18, 2004, several
officers were involved in a stake-out of the Overtime Bar in a failed
attempt to arrest Edmonton Sun writer Kerry Diotte and police oversight
commission chairman Martin Ignasiak.
Yesterday's disciplinary hearing focused on the head of the traffic
section, Sergeant Bill Newton, who is charged with abusing his
authority. According to testimony heard yesterday, Newton had been
angered by an April 4, 2004 column in which Diotte criticized the city's
photo radar program. The column became a hot topic of discussion
throughout the police force.
Diotte cited statistics that showed speed cameras raised a lot of money
for police but led to an increase, not a decrease, in accidents. "In
2001 alone, city police issued 194,500 speeding tickets," Diotte wrote.
"Photo radar and red-light cameras raise about $14 million annually for
police. Yet last year fatal collisions jumped to 32 from 20 in 2002."
"You know, I know and the police know that driver error is the main
reason crashes occur," Diotte continued. "All the photo radar in the
world is not going to correct that core problem."
Two days later, Newton ordered Sergeant Randy Schreiner to access
confidential police databases to gather information on Diotte. The
database produced a descriptions and details of Diotte's automobile and
home. Diotte has no history of drunk-driving.
Using the database information, Newton ordered officers to be on the
lookout for Diotte's BMW convertible during a "Target All Drunk Drivers"
operation meeting on November 18. Sergeant Glen Hayden then informed
Newton that he had seen Diotte at the Overtime Bar on two occasions.
Around 6pm that evening, Hayden went to the Overtime, saw Diotte's BMW
and called in undercover surveillance from two officers who were part of
a squad designed to target a list of 100 "aggressive drivers."
The undercover officers identified Diotte and Ignasiak inside the bar as
"Target One" and "Target Two" according to witnesses. Around 8:45pm an
"informant" at the bar called officer Darren Smith, who placed a lookout
bulletin on Diotte.
Diotte, whom witnesses say was not drunk, took a cab home. Hayden drove
to Diotte's home to verify whether he was there or not.
An Edmonton Police disciplinary hearing has dropped charges against
Hayden. "It was true that we found that vehicle in a bar lot and the
potential for serious harm or death was there," Hayden testified,
maintaining that he did nothing wrong.
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