Tip Tuesday with Oxford OPP - June 25th 2024

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Tuesday, 25 June 2024 10:29

Randi Crawford with the Oxford OPP was back in the Heart FM studio for the June edition of Tip Tuesday.

OXFORD COUNTY - Dashboard camera footage, noisy car exhausts, and the laws around licence plates.

Those were the topics discussed during June edition of Tip Tuesday with the Oxford OPP.

Media Relations and Community Safety Officer Randi Crawford answered three questions from our listeners during the on-air segment on the Heart FM Morning Show today, and you can find all of the details below:

1) If you have a dashboard camera, could you send the footage to the OPP to report dangerous driving behaviour?

Crawford says you absolutely can, and encourages it!

If you notice someone breaking any rules of the road, Crawford recommends gathering as much information as you can in the moment (licence plate number, vehicle make/model, time/location of the offence, driver description, etc) and calling police as soon as you can.

She adds dash cam footage could be used in a courtroom later on.

"A lot of people will drive by a collision and think lots of people have already sent footage to police, but the more we get, the better! The more we have to support that charge, the better. So please call us at 1-888-310-1122 or if you are on your cellphone you can just press *677, which is *OPP and you can get through to our dispatchers who will take it as a non-emergency type call."

2) Are noisy car exhausts illegal?

Crawford says noisy car exhausts are not only annoying, but they are also against the law.

Police officers can't go out and charge someone for having a noisy car exhaust after the fact, but that doesn't mean the driver couldn't be charged some other time.

If you spot someone with a noisy exhaust, Crawford says you should call it in a traffic complaint and the OPP will take it from there.

"What usually happens with those traffic complaints is, you call it in using our non-emergency number, the dispatcher will gather a bunch of information, the call will come to us (Oxford OPP) and then we'll have this information and we're able to create a call for service. We'll have that person's licence plate, make/model, the illegal activity, and we can send it out to the rest of our peers so they can keep their eyes out."

3) Is it okay to have your front licence plate inside your windshield instead of the front of your vehicle?

It is illegal to have your licence plate sitting inside your windshield. Crawford says all vehicles in Ontario must have two licence plates (one on the front and one on the back), and they must be secured and not obstructed in any way.

"Having it in your windshield can be obstructive with the light through the windshield, and it's also a safety concern. If you were to be in a collision and that licence plate wasn't secure, you don't know what is going to happen."

Crawford says you shouldn't have anything covering your licence plate whatsoever, adding even a clear licence plate cover could obstruct it.

Any sort of obstruction could interfere with the OPP's Automated Licence Plate Recognition. All cruisers are equipped with cameras that can read licence plates as the officers drive by, and inform them if a vehicle is reported stolen, is the subject of an Amber Alert, etc.

If a licence plate is not present on the vehicle, Crawford says it's usually a stolen vehicle in most cases.

The last topic of discussion was not a question from a listener, but Crawford had this message for everyone ahead of the Canada Day long weekend.

"With the OPP, we are focusing greatly on making sure you're wearing your safety things in your vehicles, vessels, and off-road vehicles. So we want to remind everybody that if you're in your vehicle you're going to be wearing a seatbelt, if you're out on the water you want to make sure you have that life jacket, and if you're on an off-road vehicle please wear your helmet."

The kids will also have their last day of school this Thursday, so Crawford would also like to wish all of them a happy and safe summer vacation with their families.

The next Tip Tuesday is scheduled for Tuesday, July 30th and you can submit a question online here.