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Old 08-04-2017, 09:48 PM   #1
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Odd Official Conduct in Victoria, B.C.

While walking around downtown in Victoria, B.C. yesterday I saw a man in uniform, not a police uniform but something else, approach a monument/sculpture and place what looked like a cellphone against a round white disk attached to the concrete slab of the monument. He read something from the phone's screen then walked away.

After he was out of sight I went over to the monument and looked at the disk. It was about an inch in diameter and was flat white in color. I didn't touch it. To me it seemed like the man was measuring something. Does anyone know what he was doing?
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Old 08-04-2017, 09:53 PM   #2
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When I was doing security on a BC Ferry in dry dock, I carried a clock on my rounds and had to punch it at into a device at all stations on all the decks. Was much more cumbersome than a cell phone.
Maybe?
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Old 08-04-2017, 10:10 PM   #3
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Hey Mike- check out dim sum at Golden City Restaurant.
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Old 08-04-2017, 10:14 PM   #4
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Not having a smart phone, I know very little about them but it seems like one can scan certain things (like bar codes, for example, or those goofy looking black squares) and information about whatever is the focus of attention comes up via the internet. Maybe?
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Old 08-04-2017, 10:14 PM   #5
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When I was doing security on a BC Ferry in dry dock, I carried a clock on my rounds and had to punch it at into a device at all stations on all the decks. Was much more cumbersome than a cell phone.
Maybe?
Yeah, I think that's a good guess-- it fits the man's behavior at least. The man's uniform looked like a security guard's uniform, but I have to remind myself that I was in Canada so I don't know what uniforms are supposed to look like. I saw nothing on the disc itself that would provide any scientific or technical info, and he held the phone right against it, so I don't think it was measuring air quality (or radioactivity, or poison gas, or bioweapons, or anything else I can think of if I keep thinking about it ). So he was probably just clocking in. Thanks.

This is what happens when a country boy returns to the city.
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Old 08-04-2017, 10:26 PM   #6
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Hey Mike- check out dim sum at Golden City Restaurant.
Eh, too late-- I'm already back. I screwed up by making a day trip via ferry, thinking I was buying a round-trip ticket when I was not. This made the trip twice as expensive and not worth going over there for just a few hours. I was really ticked off when I found that I had to buy another ticket to get back to the U.S., and had a ferry crossing cussfit on the way home.
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Old 08-04-2017, 10:46 PM   #7
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Aw crud, as my FLA mom used to say.
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Old 08-04-2017, 11:22 PM   #8
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My mom, and other female Southern relatives, would say to me, "Well bless your heart!" Which translates as "God needs to look after you because you're an idiot." Remember that, Yankees, when you're traveling down South and someone says that to you.

On the upside, I did get a new, free Tilley hat. I found the Tilley store and they swapped for a new one. This was after they let me wash up because I had just been showered by a high-altitude seagull. A final indignity for the old Tilley hat.

I wanted to buy a second, black Tilley hat for, you know, the winter season, but the black hats in the store had a wider brim and made me look like The Flying Nun, or Rev. Will B. Dunn in the comic strip "Kudzu". So I got an olive green hat for my winter Tilley.
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Old 08-05-2017, 12:27 AM   #9
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Hmmm...we live in Victoria and now I'm curious. Do you know what street it was on or what area?
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Old 08-05-2017, 12:33 AM   #10
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I agree with Baglo. I have seen security people "clock" in at stations like you described. I guess it ensures and records that they have made the full rounds of their patrol.
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Old 08-05-2017, 01:32 AM   #11
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Mike, I'm going to agree with Glenn and say the white disc you saw was probably an electronic tag that was epoxied on to the monument as a checkpoint, and the guy's cell phone registered his presence there. Something like the technology offered here:

https://www.guardmetrics.com
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Old 08-05-2017, 01:44 AM   #12
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The one I carried looked something like this ( hey, it was 48 years ago ). About the size of a curling stone and nearly as heavy.
Funny that I was thinking about this just the other day. I remember doing the rounds, but I don't remember ever being told what I should do if I encountered something, like a fire or a rabid salmon
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Old 08-05-2017, 09:28 AM   #13
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Hmmm...we live in Victoria and now I'm curious. Do you know what street it was on or what area?
Yes-- it was on the southeast corner of Fisgard and Government Streets, according to Google Maps, in front of the "Gate of Harmonious Interest" to Chinatown. There is a concrete and metal object there that I paid no attention to so I can't describe it, other than it has a white dot on one of its concrete slabs.
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Old 08-05-2017, 09:31 AM   #14
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The one I carried looked something like this ( hey, it was 48 years ago ). About the size of a curling stone and nearly as heavy.
I have seen these clocks before and never knew their purpose. Thanks for posting the photo.
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Old 08-05-2017, 10:18 PM   #15
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A friend of mine in the security biz confirmed what Glenn said-- the guard was checking in with his cellphone. Solved that mystery.
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Old 08-05-2017, 10:39 PM   #16
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A friend of mine in the security biz confirmed what Glenn said-- the guard was checking in with his cellphone. Solved that mystery.
Bet he didn't get to bring his girlfriend to work, and shower with her between rounds.
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Old 08-06-2017, 02:55 PM   #17
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Those clocks were also used in the military. when doing "rounds" you had to stop and clock in maybe 10 different places each hour, while walking your "beat". The next day the paper tapes were inspected to insure you did not take any shortcuts.
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Old 08-06-2017, 03:34 PM   #18
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I often wondered how effective "punching in" was. At our club, many dark nights I'd be ready to leave my boat, sometimes even standing on a side float off the main dock. The night watchman would walk by, not notice me, punch in a couple of boats away and then walk off without ever seeing me. I wonder if this "rote" punching in doesn't deter from the "watch"man function.

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Old 08-06-2017, 05:41 PM   #19
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I often wondered how effective "punching in" was. At our club, many dark nights I'd be ready to leave my boat, sometimes even standing on a side float off the main dock. The night watchman would walk by, not notice me, punch in a couple of boats away and then walk off without ever seeing me. I wonder if this "rote" punching in doesn't deter from the "watch"man function.

Ron
You're suspicions are correct Ron. Sometimes the checklists and checkpoints do more harm than good. Sure, they prevent the lazy employee from sitting down on the job, but they also encourage a checklist mentality instead of an "eyes and ears" mentality. Before I became a peace officer, many years ago, I ran a security department at a large hotel. The GM required me to have the security officers sign a log on a clipboard in a utility closet on each floor whenever they did their "floor patrol". The whole point of the floor patrol was to see and be seen, to look for hazards, fire danger, and illegal activity - not to sign a clipboard in a closet. The guys who missed alot of things were often the ones with the most perfect floor logs.
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