Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) are taking to your devices to help keep you informed of certain events.
Starting Monday, you may begin to receive text messages from the OPP as it rolls out a new engagement tool. According to police, the system “enables fully automated messages to be sent to a caller’s SMS-enabled device after they have initiated certain types of calls through 911 or the non-emergency line.”
There is a specific list of event types that can be sent out as messages with this new system.
Typically, it works when the caller gets a text message with their event number. Some might also include additional information related to a specific call type.
“For example, messages sent in response to calls relating to some motor vehicle collisions might include information on Collision Reporting Centres,” read the OPP notice. “After the call is cleared by the responding officer, if/as required, the initial caller will receive an invitation to a brief voluntary survey to provide feedback on their experience with the OPP.”
You can choose to receive messages in English or French, and opt out if you wish.
Complete information on the new text-messaging initiative can be found on the official OPP website.
If you are concerned that you may have received such a message fraudulently, call the OPP non-emergency line to verify at 1-888-310-1122.
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No way I would install an app from a police force of any kind. I wouldn’t trust them with my privacy one bit.
Not sure if I missed it but I see no mention of an app. It seems more to do with getting relevant text messages after certain types of calls to the emergency line.
From what i gather from the article after the initial important information, there will be a follow-up with less vital details about the call if required. Freeing up the dispatch id imagine giving the information directly to the responding officers
I think the article meant that the police are using a new app on their end to send SMS messages to those who have contacted them for follow-up.
Ah ok.
Your phone is already wide open to law enforcement. If they want to see what’s on your phone, they can use one of the myriad backdoors that are engineered to give law enforcement unfettered access.
I don’t like calling the police for anything … I’m Indigenous and I’ve had lots of good and bad run-ins with the police. Due to the fact I am a big older Native guy, my race, skin colour, hair length and my real name being obviously Indigenous, I get profiled pretty quickly. If I get stopped in traffic while I am alone, I normally get a long 15 minute or half hour background check and get held for longer for some reason. If my white Caucasian wife is with me in the car … I usually get a quick chat, 30 seconds to check my license and insurance and thanks and a good bye.
So on a few occassions where I did call 911 and the OPP about an unsafe car I saw, a transport going to fast … or last winter, reporting a transport with a blown tire that threw debris all over the place and a whole tire down the road and left a 50’ trailer with a completely exposed axle … I called and I was literally interogated on the phone. Who are you, your full name, address, location, phone number, what were you doing, where were you going, who’s in the car with you, were you driving, what are you driving, who else was around, etc … At one point, I had to stop the operator and tell her that I didn’t want to answer any information and that I just wanted to report something. She tried to convince me that it was all relevant information but I refused. I reported what I had to report and that was it.
Never assume the police have your best interest. They are trained with an adversarial mindset where everyone they see is a potential criminal or helping a criminal. There is no innocently talking to the police. If there is an investigation and they are talking to you, you are automatically in their crosshairs and you are a suspect.
I never deal with the police unless I really, really have to and if I do, I will always treat them with respect and patience because when it all comes down to it … they have all the power in a conversation. If they disagree with what I have to say or think, I have no choice … and if I really want to disagree or argue anything further, I will be threatened and even arrested for it.
So my very first instinct when dealing with the police is to not go anywhere near them or talk to them unless I really have to.
OPP == Original Party Poopers
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