Can a LEO run a Canadian DL? Any LEO please respond.

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45automan

New member
Hi guys my brother related a story to me a while back. He has a way of embelishing things though. He has some friends fron Canada, Edmonton Aberta to be exact. Anyway my brother the lead foot gets stopped for speeding and his freind gives the cop the only ID he had a Canadian Drivers Lisence. Now from what my brother said the cop couldn't get a check on the guy cause we are not tied into the Canadian DMV or whatever it's called there. Is this true? Wouldn't the states that boader Canada at least be tied in? What if a fugitive from Canada crosses into the US? How would an LEO know? I mean you don't have to be brilliant to cross the US Canada boader. Thanks for any help with this...Ehhhh!! :)
45automan
 
Either the cop or the Dispatcher didn't know what they were talking about. We can run both the driver's license and the vehicle license plate on the system. Maybe that town didn't have access to the teletype system like most do.

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"Charlton Heston is my President"

Danny45
NRA, NAHC, Buckmasters
 
Used to be, it took about 30 minutes to get a return on a Canadian DL or vehicle registration, and then the Fan Belt Inspectors would call, demanding to know why you ran the information. :rolleyes: We used to have a stock set of smart-alec answers. :D

In either 1994 or 1995, my department got an upgrade, and the Canadian queries ran just as fast as the American ones.

LawDog
 
In some large departments where dispatchers run a lot of data for officers, the Computer Aided Dispatch systems are only programmed to run the most basic inquiries. When anything out of the ordinary comes up, the officer may be told to talk to another dispatcher who handles only data. Or sometimes, the primary dispatcher tells the officers that something can't be run, either because the dispatcher has bigger fish to fry, or doesn't know what s/he's talking about.

Yes, Canadian returns for license plates, driver's licenses, stolen vehicles, and warrants of arrest are all available on-line, just as fast as inquiries for the domestic equivelant.

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"Anyone feel like saluting the flag which the strutting ATF and FBI gleefully raised over the smoldering crematorium of Waco, back in April of ‘93?" -Vin Suprynowicz
 
Our system is set up so you can run local (same-state) OLs and plates through the cruiser computer, and out-of-state OLs/plates if the Data Gods are feeling benevolent and the stars line up right (I have found that knowing the proper state-specific format for the query drastically improves the Data Gods' moods ;)).

Canadian OLs/plates and weird out-of-state OLs/plates require you to get on the radio, flip to a certain channel and deal with a dispatcher who was placed in that out-of-the-way spot because he or she was too slow or inept to handle the main airwaves. The phrase 'your mileage may vary' certainly applies, and it does. A lot. ;)

Mike

PS These are the same species of dispatchers who once told me that a person I had run was a missing person, but neglected to tell me he also had warrants for his arrest. 8O Hey, retarded fish (dumb bass)! Read past the first few lines of the return, okay?!?

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"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects." -Robert Heinlein
 
We cannot run them on our laptops in my county, and the dispatcher says most of the time they will not get a response to THEIR data requests on a Canadian license.
Whats worse to me is the person who hands me some paper International D/L or a license in some foreign language. We get a lot of those here, being an Ivy League town.
 
Now that the original question has been answered this would be a good thread to relate stupid dispatcher stories. But, unfortuneately, it would be off topic big time. :D

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Gunslinger

I was promised a Shortycicle and I want a Shortycicle!
 
Around here we get a lot of Japanese businessmen. A Japanese license looks like the printed circuit board inside a cellular phone, all lines and squiggles. Using the photo to distinguish front from back and top from bottom I look at it dutifully for maybe 10 seconds and ask if the address is current or have they moved. Some get it and the rest learn a new word of English - JOKE.
 
Careful gunslinger, having been on both sides, I can relate alot more stories of dumb cops than I can dumb dispatchers. :D

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"Charlton Heston is my President"

Danny45
NRA, NAHC, Buckmasters
 
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