There’s a scarecrow constable in town, and he’s making sure residents aren’t speeding.
A cardboard cutout of a police officer holding a radar gun is travelling around different areas of Lake Country to make drivers jump in their seat and hit the brakes.
“Did anyone else see the cardboard cutout of a police officer holding a radar gun this morning at Highway 97 and Robinson Road,” wrote Carrie Lee in a Facebook post on Wednesday, June 27. “[It] has since been removed but it was very bizarre.”
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The cutout is nomadic, said Facebook users, citing they’ve seen the officer at multiple locations.
“They have had those for most of the school year, usually in a school zone and they move around to catch people off guard,” wrote Amanda Ulliac.
Most of the commenting-cohort agreed the cutout is working and have noticed surrounding drivers slowing down, assumably once they’ve noticed the scarecrow.
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“I’ve also seen it in school zones made me look twice,” said Priaz Denis while fellow Facebooker, Patti Hackman, wrote, “So good… the car in front of me slowed down to a snail’s pace, which is good!!”
One retrograde commenter called the practice “stupid” and wrote, “Just put the real cops there do your work! That’s your work, not a dummy we pay for real!”
Aaron Johnson even put forth a possible conspiracy theory: “They will let us get used to seeing it then put a real laser gun cop behind it.”
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The origins of cut-out police in Canada, as far as Cpl. Michael McLaughlin knows, took place in Coquitlam when his detachment spawned Const. Scarecrow in September 2018.
During the unveiling, McLaughlin said if the project saw success, other B.C. RCMP detachments would adopt the project.
This must have been the case, seeing as Lake Country has one as well as nearby Kelowna.
The only other disapproval from the commenters seemed to be one resident who supposedly tried to strike a conversation with the officer.
“Stopped to talk with him. Wasn’t very friendly so I moved on.”
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@davidvenn_David.venn@kelownacapnews.comLike us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
