COBOURG POLICE CHIEF, PAUL SWEET REPLIES

In response to my initial missive to the Cobourg Police Services Board, I received the below response from Cobourg’s Chief of Police, Paul Sweet. I include his several spelling and grammatical errors, which I do not regard as indicative of semi-literacy, but rather, that he is a busy guy, has little time for the likes of me, and slap dashes a quickie template response while disregarding the spell-checker.

The Cobourg Police Service under no circumstances provides any information on a privileged investigations to any unauthorized organization.

I do not know specifically how the media person you refer to was able to be at the scene of our investigation. I can however state that the Cobourg Police Service did not officially release any notification to any member of the media prior.

I do know generally that a number of Media have very sophisticated devices
for monitoring our communications dispite our best efforts to avoid this. Also, there is no legislation that prohibits the monitoring of our communications. This not only applys to the Cobourg Police Service but unfortunatly most Police Services.

Once the Media is on scene they cannot obstruct police in their investigation but they also enjoy their rights also.

Regarding the opening sentence, I’m not sure if Chief Sweet is referring to a plural or single investigation, nevertheless, it is simply a standard statement of policy.

In the second paragraph he asserts his personal ignorance of how the media person was able to be at the scene of the takedown. I do believe Chief Sweet when he asserts that CPS “did not officially release” privileged information prior. It’s not the official release that is of concern.

The significant sentence concerns “very sophisticated devices for monitoring.” It is generally known that biker gangs, drug gangs and other unsavoury mob members have good reason to utilize the best scanner devices their laundered money can buy. CPS knows this.

A top dollar police organization knows enough not to broadcast privileged or compromising information over police radio waves. It is standard operating procedure.

The drug takedown at Campbell Street was exceedingly well planned and executed. All of this was prepared prior to the police cars hitting the street. CPS would have enough professionalism and enough sense of security about broadcasting takedown information that there would be absolutely no need for radio chatter. The most sophisticated scanner in the world would never have picked up anything about this takedown – unless, of course, CPS did not act with the utmost professionalism and security.

How stupid would it be if any CPS personnel broadcast the address of their target while in their vehicles on the way to the takedown scene? Every officer in their cruiser knew full well what the address was. Again, it is standard operating procedure.

There are two entrances to Campbell Street. It was a classic pincher operation, one marked cruiser coming in off University, the other off Darcy. They stopped in position, ready to act in the event of an escape attempt by the suspects, while two unmarked cars swooped into the driveway and we see the first officer, Sgt Mclean, running towards the suspect.

Radio communication would not be necessary unless and until something happened outside of the planned execution of the takedown. If there was an attempt by a suspect to escape there would be instant radio chatter to facilitate intervention of the escape.

With unbelievable coincidence, the photographer was already in place to witness the unmarked cars swooping into the driveway. This is according the story posted with the photograph. At 4pm the sun is well in the west, and we can see that sunshine is splashing on the face of Sgt Mclean and in the back of the head of the suspect. This places the house on the west side of Campbell Street but at the north end, according to the story, at the curve of the street. The car of the photographer was facing north across the street; note the yellow bar on the lower left of the picture and the rear frame of another car on the lower right of the frame.

The presence of the photographer in that particular location prior to the unmarked cars swooping into the driveway could well have compromised the police operation.

So to recap: CPS would not have been so unprofessional and lacking in security consciousness that they would have broadcast the location of the takedown over their radio system such that criminals using sophisticated scanners would have had advanced knowledge. This leaves only the higher probability that someone employed by CPS with access to privileged information provided advance knowledge to a private individual to be there.

The photographer has good motivation to accept such privileged information. There is money to be made from action shots. Supermarket tabloids love this sort of imagery. Some rogue CPS employee facilitates this for the aggrandizement of CPS in the public eye.

If anyone wonders why I have so easily dismissed the non-denial denial in Chief Sweet’s letter they can read page 1 and page 2 of a letter that Solicitor-General, Warren Allmand, had sent to Northumberland MP, Allan Lawrence, pertaining to an incident that happened to me many moon ago. Allmand wrote, “I have been assured by the R.C.M.P. that it is not their practice to intercept private mail . . .” This turned out not to be true and the Royal MacDonald Commission was set up a few years later to look into this and other RCMP misdeeds. Many of the documents pertaining to this can be seen here and here.