Friday September 28, 2007 was a PD day for us. We spent the day with our Big Brother Al who is an OPP officer south of Sudbury. Al took us on a tour of the OPP headquarters which is in Orillia. On the way down there we stopped at his detachment where he works out of and saw the lock-up area, his desk, the area where drunk driver are brought to give breath samples and a black and white cruiser. Another OPP officer was working day shift this day and showed us the cruiser and all his equipment. This officer was a member of the OPP Emergency Response Unit. The trunk of his cruiser was jam-packed with camouflage uniforms, equipment and a long gun. We left 15 minutes later and continued our drive to Orillia. We got to Orillia and saw this massive complex with a pond in front. It was around lunchtime. After checking in at the security desk we toured the OPP museum. Inside are lots of old photos, uniforms, equipment and police memorabilia from hundreds of years ago. It was really interesting and neat to see. http://www.opp.ca/Community/Museum/index.htm
After the museum we went to the cafeteria down the hall. Its called the "steakout", haha, get it? The food there was good and the price was right. While we ate lots of officers in uniforms came in. Some were wearing dark shirts while others wore white shirts. Al explained the difference being that the officers in the white shirts were the management or higher ranking officers and that the dark coloured shirt officers are usually front line officers with the exception of the insignia on their shoulders or as they are called "epaulettes". Three stripes meant the officer was a Sergeant for example. After lunch we went into the "off duty shop". This is a store that sells OPP clothing, pens, equipment, books, etc. Al let us pick out something as a souvenir for our day with him at the OPP Headquarters. We got an OPP ballcap and keychain light.
After this we went over to the Heliport. This is where the OPP helicopters are parked. We were introduced to SGT. Scott Ross one of the OPP helicopter pilots and he gave us a tour of the hanger that can fit two helicopters inside. The OPP have two jet helicopters that service the entire Province. One is kept here in Orillia and the other one is kept in Sudbury. We got to sit inside it and Al took some pictures of us. Before continuing on our tour SGT. Ross gave us both official OPP helicopter unit ballcaps. That was cool!
Our last stop for the tour was the OPP Transport section of this huge complex. This is where all the OPP cruisers, trucks, boats, motorcycles, ATVs, etc come from. We got to see the new black and white cruisers being equipped along with black and white trucks. http://www.opp.ca/opp_001812.html This place is HUGE. There was a separate section just for ATVs and boats. The outside lot was full of old white OPP vehicles that were being replaced with the new black and white ones. How do the vehicles get up to the detachments? It all depends are where the detachments are....For the ones that are close by, an officer would drive the old cruiser there and drive the new one back but for the ones that are far away like Thunder Bay, the vehicles (cruisers and trucks) are delivered using an OPP car carrier.
The new vehicles are brought up and the old ones brought back. The old vehicles arrive at the OPP Transport Section and are stripped down including the car numbers and lettering. So all that remains is a while Ford or Chev. The cars, trucks, etc go to be auctioned off. We left the garage and started the trip home to Sudbury.
It was a full day with our Big Brother Al and it was a very interesting and fun day as well. This is an amazing place. We'd recommend this place to tour as its open to the public and you can see the OPP in another way, not just stopping people and handing out tickets.
Submitted by little brothers: Josh Kollmel and George Buchal