This is a police encounter that didn’t have a bad ending…
It was the 4th of July weekend many years ago. My two female cousins were in Toronto visiting me from New York. We were driving around in my pickup and had been sightseeing around the lakeshore area of the city. I should say at this point that there may have been some smokeables involved. Not that I am speaking for my cousins should they ever read this. There was probably a lot of fast foods and drinks consumed also. It was getting late in the evening and we started heading up Yonge Street to see all the excitement that happens there. We had a good day and were just having fun.
We got through the downtown core when I got the urge to urinate. I pulled off to a side street that ended in a ravine. We sat there for a minute and I decided I wasn’t comfortable with that spot. I was also thinking that the girls would pull a prank on me such as blowing the horn and flashing the lights.
Anyway I drove off and just got around the corner when the flashing lights appeared in my rear view. It was two officers in a cruiser. One came to my side and took me to the rear of the truck while his partner questioned the girls in the vehicle. The officer told me they were parked in the ravine behind a bush. They were conducting an investigation into some women being assaulted in the ravine.
He then asked me all the usual questions; I was in great pain by this time and was not being smart with him. He was also very professional and I didn’t feel threatened, this was back when the Toronto police were respectful to civilians. Anyway he started to question me about my cousins. This was when he took on a tone of sarcasm. He was implying that I had picked these girls up somewhere for a good time. But the strange thing was he was asking me things that he would only have known if he had already interviewed them and he was trying to match up our stories. He had an earpiece and was listening to his partner and vice versa. Finally in one last attempt to catch me out he said “ and I suppose you’re going to tell me they both have the same last name as you”. I said yes they do. That was it, I was free to go.
We had a good giggle about it all the way home. What I learned from that is never underestimate the technology. That was back when all we had were unreliable pagers, but I believe that police today can get advice and instructions in real time from headquarters based on your responses, through video and audio link.
When you talk to an officer today you may be talking to his whole village.