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Why do police have to stand at construction sites?

E

Eug

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Forgive me if this has been posted already, but I did a search and didn't find it.

I was wondering why police in Toronto have to stand at road repair and construction sites. This seems like an incredible waste of dollars to me.

In other places (at least outside Ontario) I don't see this. Police are actually, well, policing.
 
They direct traffic due to the disruption caused by the contractor. The contractor pays them, as they're off duty cops.
 
digi said:
They direct traffic due to the disruption caused by the contractor. The contractor pays them, as they're off duty cops.
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So off duty cops are allowed to wear their uniforms then?

Why are they not required in other jurisdictions then?
 
Eug said:
No.

Well, at least they're not uniformed. Perhaps they're still off-duty police, but aren't allowed to wear their uniforms.
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So, there are cops at construction sites in other jurisdictions?
 
digi said:
So, there are cops at construction sites in other jurisdictions?
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All I can say is that if some US cities I've been to for example, you usually won't see uniformed policeman standing by an open sewer where city workers are doing their thing, whereas in Toronto it seems to be the norm. Is it due to some city (or provincial) bylaws?
 
They're off-duty in the sense that standing around watching a backhoe isn't their normal duty, but they aren't off-duty in the sense of operating outside the confines of the police force.

Training is available to allow civilians to stop and direct traffic without police assistance, but you generally don't see that outside of larger-scale projects. Tho even then the project still needs to have permits in place to allow for minor disruptions of traffic, and if the workers out on the street lack the proper training the companies involved can face significant fines.
 
OK, so they're off duty and they are not directly taking away from tax-payer paid policing duties.

However, at $65 an hour it is still hitting us tax-payers in the pocket book to a certain extent. A lot of these construction sites are government projects, and this seems like one (small) way to save some bux.

One wonders why so many other places are able to do these projects without (uniformed) police. More trained civilians or trained construction workers? More lax permit rules? More illegal activity? Etc.
 
Eug said:
However, at $65 an hour it is still hitting us tax-payers in the pocket book to a certain extent. A lot of these construction sites are government projects, and this seems like one (small) way to save some bux.
Click to expand...

Well, as you pointed out, someone still has to be trained and paid to properly direct traffic efficiently.

Is it cheaper to save a relatively few dollars to have someone without a recognizable uniform to which people will respond to while taking a larger risk that something could go wrong? It wouldn't take much of a lawsuit to negate any labour savings.

One wonders why so many other places are able to do these projects without (uniformed) police. More trained civilians or trained construction workers? More lax permit rules? More illegal activity? Etc.
Click to expand...

Maybe other jurisdictions don't have Toronto-type drivers who would seriously threaten the safety of workers were it not for a uniform presence.
 
Asterix said:
Maybe other jurisdictions don't have Toronto-type drivers who would seriously threaten the safety of workers were it not for a uniform presence.
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Maybe, but a lot of cities have more aggressive drivers than Toronto does.
 
One wonders why so many other places are able to do these projects without (uniformed) police.
Click to expand...

I've never seen a construction site, encroaching on a public thoroughfare, that didn't have a cop nearby. My ancedotal evidence cancels out yours ;)
 
anyone could direct traffic really. I've seen those bright orange vest sold at stores. They look like the ones that direct the "stop" signs streets near schools so kids can cross safely.
 
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