London police volunteer to patrol Windsor today

[Forts]

From todays London Free Press:

One-third of London's 550 police officers have answered the Windsor force's call for backup during the funeral of a fallen colleague today.

In a move that goes beyond the usual symbolic gestures of support, London police have volunteered to patrol the Rose City's streets today, freeing Windsor officers to attend the funeral of Const. John Atkinson, killed last Friday.

"It's truly a testament to how committed we are to this policing family," Const. Amanda Pfeffer said yesterday. "The chief (Murray Faulkner) offered whatever the London police could provide.

"This kind of loss affects the entire police community. We all feel the loss."

About half the London officers heading to Windsor will be on duty, just as they would be here. A caravan of cruisers was to hit Highway 401 about 4 a.m. The day-long shift will last 10 hours, until 5 p.m.

The other officers were to attend Atkinson's funeral, expected to draw 7,000 people, including police from across Canada and the U. S


Link to the full story here:

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/2006/05/11/1574144-sun.html

I wonder what they will use for comms? Considering London is on a digital EDACS system while Windsor is analog Motorola. Just PCOM perhaps?

 

[mikewazowski]

The I-Tac channels would make the most sense. Both departments should have them in their 800Mhz radios.

 

[Forts]

Ah. Good call, that would make sense. Anyone in the Windsor area hear anything today?

 

[FoeHammer]

Yes , the London units were on our normal trunked system same frequencies & trunk Ids as normal Windsor units
although there was an unfamilar Id here n there , I think the way it worked was the ones from London were paired up with a officer from Windsor so they probably just used the Windsor radios for the most part , also there was much activity on the special events tg Im not sure how much the 2 services radios have in common , the place that maintains our police service radios ( the name doesnt come to me right now) is a pretty large outfit & I'd imagine could have programmed & loaned out as much radios as were required ,So Im not sure about how it was actually done but end result was that London units were able to take the place of & operate on our system just as if they were Windsor units , more than once I have heard the dispatcher giving progressive step by step instructions , to help some of units locate an address .(so some must have also not had a windsor officer with them).& have heard ours thanking them ...
The funeral today was of course very large & it looked in addition to the large number of police from all over , the city residents ,. everyone who could.. lined the streets
anyway it has been sad week here , & I thank the city of London & others
for helping our community.

 

[Forts]

It's good to hear that things went smoothly by the sounds of it. A very sad day indeed.

 

[Forts]

Do you know if the London guys were on patrol in London cruisers? Or were they using Windsor PD cars?

 

[FoeHammer]

I have not seen any London marked units in the streets in masse..., although I'm sure some came down for the prosession.

 

[sunfireguy]

Just to let you guys know, all the london and toronto police volunteers were driving in the windsor police cars. I seen them today while I was at work. You could tell on the radio that it wasn't the usual police force on duty.

 

[Windman]

There were also London police cruisers patrolling the city. They came by the picket line at Colonial Tool on Walker Rd to check things out in a London cruiser.

 

[ve3zo]

There were also London police cruisers patrolling the city. They came by the picket line at Colonial Tool on Walker Rd to check things out in a London cruiser.

I can verify that for you. I saw a London cruiser going North on Lauzon Rd. yesterday.