Local police uses humour to educate drivers about #ProjectIgloo campaign

By Meagan Casalino

In his eight years of service, Ottawa Police Const. Philip Kane has heard every excuse in the book.

Kane works out of the Ottawa Police headquarters, between the two major commuting areas of the downtown core and the Queensway. He is part of police efforts to spread awareness about the dangers — and fines — for drivers who leave snow on top of their cars before heading out on the road.

Kane has taken a slightly unconventional approach to the campaign by creating the hashtag: #ProjectIgloo and tweeting from his personal account.

The whimsical hashtag, named after cars that looked like “tiny moving igloos,” was created by Kane in 2015 to spread the word by sharing photos and the drivers’ excuses he’s heard after pulling over cars.

“But I don’t have a snowbrush” .#ProjectIgloo pic.twitter.com/HVtIZsfUYj

— Phil Kane (@carbinekane) January 8, 2018

He uses humour and funny photos to capture the attention of his audience so he can deliver a serious lesson.

“Traffic enforcement is as much education as it is enforcement,” said Kane.

The $110 fine was created to discourage drivers from leaving piles of snow on the roof of their cars. The idea is to prevent flying projectiles of ice and snow from hitting other cars or obstructing the view of drivers when snow slides down onto their windshield after making a sudden stop.

“While I was dealing with one car, I’d see a whole bunch more go by,” Kane said.

The crackdown and social media campaign began in 2015 after Kane said police were overwhelmed with an abundance of drivers breaking the law.

Vehicle collisions are up to 40 per cent more likely in the winter than any other season, according to the City of Ottawa’s annual safety report.

Because of ice and snow, winter driving can be hazardous, but cleaning off your car is one of the ways drivers can help prevent collisions, said John Hodge, president of the Motorsport Club of Ottawa .

Hodge said the most common winter driving hazard is other drivers.

“If you leave a sheet of ice on top of your car, sure it’s frozen then, but after driving for half an hour, it’s going to loosen and fly off,” he said.

Kane said that with the added risk of snow and ice, driving requires all of your attention. “Driving is a responsibility and you need to do everything to ensure that everyone is going to get to where they are going,” he said.

Sean Keating, an engineering student at Carleton University, has been driving for four years, but said he learned the dangers of a snow-covered car from his father, long before getting behind the wheel.

“He would stop at a stop sign or a red light and the stuff that’s on the roof would slide down onto the windshield,” Keating recounted. “He’d pull over, have me get out, clear off the car and then we’d continue on.”

Keating said the humour in the #IglooProject posts helps humanize police officers, which was Kane’s intention all along.

“I’m not just the guy in the uniform, driving a cop car. I’m Phil Kane first, who happens to be a police officer,” he said.

Kane said using his personal Twitter account is a simple way of building on a culture of transparency within the police force.

While most of the feedback on Kane’s tweets is positive, he said, he has also received comments questioning his professionalism.

“You’ve got to kind of put a little bit of humour in it . . . It gets the tweet noticed,” he said.

Kane said some people say his tweets are not taking the situation seriously, or raise concerns about privacy.

“I’m very careful not to name any persons or use any identifiers in the photos, like licence plates,” he said.

While #ProjectIgloo is Kane’s personal initiative, the department still requires officers to go through several hours of social media training before running an outreach campaign related to their jobs.

Kane calls the campaign a “virtual ride-along,” which helps bridge the gap between police officers and citizens.

“A lot of people don’t have the opportunity to talk to a police officer,” he said. “It’s a good avenue for (direct feedback), but we still encourage people to file traffic complaints through the Ottawa Police website.”

Kane’s final piece of advice for drivers: “Spend the five minutes it takes to clear off the ice and snow from your car and spend the $4 and buy an ice scraper.”