To All Canadians,
Over the last several years, concerned citizens from across canada have launched volunteer run organizations bearing the trademarks of “police watch” or “cop watch,” such as the websites:
and perhaps there are others that the author of this website is unaware of. All of these websites purport to have one main goal: to ensure that police misconduct and human rights abuses by the various police departments is brought to the public and tracked, to help in fighting these injustices through the open medium of the internet, and to provide a credible citizens source of information regarding these abuses.
This brings us to the mystery of the RCMPWatch.com website. If this website is run by citizens who wish to remain anonymous, that is absolutely acceptable and protected as such. However, it is the opinion of this author that some evidence exists that suggests that the website is run by the RCMP or a constable working in the RCMP.
Generally, when attempting to find who owns a website, one utilizes a lookup entitled WHOIS. The full information is available here. A section of the results follows:
domain: rcmpwatch.com
created: 01-Aug-2004
last-changed: 02-Aug-2007
registration-expiration: 01-Aug-2008
nserver: ns27.1and1.com 74.208.2.3
nserver: ns28.1and1.com 74.208.3.3
status: CLIENT-TRANSFER-PROHIBITED
registrant-firstname: Privacy Officer
registrant-lastname: The Privacy Manager Dot Com
registrant-organization: RCMPWatch.com
registrant-street1: 74 Kenneth
registrant-pcode: E3B 8B4
registrant-state: NB
registrant-city: Fredericton
registrant-ccode: CA
registrant-phone: +1.5064529292
registrant-email: rcmpwatch@theprivacymanager.com
Often people utilize WHOIS information that hides who they are, so as to avoid spammers and unwanted attention. Here we see the domain RCMPWatch.com is registered with information that points to “theprivacymanager.com.” That website is registered much the same
Theprivacymanager.com is a shell website with no actual functionality, which is peculiar, especially since it has existed since 2001. Regardless, both registrations utilize the same number “5064529292”
Who owns this phone number? A reverse lookup is available here
Which reveals that the phone number belongs to a “Robert A Vinet” of Fredericton, New Brunswick. Who is Robert Vinet?
Looking at this RCMP website available here we find a Constable Robert Vinet working in Oromocto Rural as “Admin Support.”
So what exactly is going on here? To review:
1. The title of the website is RCMP Watch, with the tagline “Who is keeping them accountable?” So far this would seem to indicate that the website is of from a concerned citizen or group thereof.
2. The “About Us” section of the website criticizes that the RCMP have lack of oversight, but does so with some rather favourable language (i.e. “one of the world’s all-time great police forces”).
3. The phone number on the WHOIS information of two websites points to a constable at a RCMP detachment in New Brunswick.
So is the RCMP attempting to subvert the open medium of the internet in order to block attempts by civilians to communicate their concerns regarding RCMP misconduct? Or, are the RCMP unaware that a constable is likely running this website? Is Internal Affairs aware that this website may be misdirecting complaints from the appropriate channels?
Regardless, the website has a contact page asking for information about “tips,” and claims “We always respect your privacy and your contact details will not be divulged to any third party unless we are required to do so by law (i.e. Search Warrant or other legal instrument).”
BE WARNED THAT SUBMITTING INFORMATION TO THIS WEBSITE YOU MAY IN FACT BE SUBMITTING DIRECTLY TO POLICE AND NOT A NON-GOVERNMENT WATCHDOG GROUP
If anyone has any further information regarding this website, please let us know at admin@rcmpwatchwatch.org
6 comments ↓
Wow!
It seems to me a reflection of a disgruntled government employee who wants to cover his own rear with overstated phrases about the glorious RCMP, while complaining about various operating ‘discrepancies’ he/she holds as opinions. A half handed attempt to voice complaint without taking responsibility for it. The anonymity of the internet is such a place where someone can hide a scrabby shack behind a facade…but the truth surfaces in the end…everything leaves a trail.
Bully for you uncovering this scam.
You will probably find numerous postings by myself on that site. However, only selected ones were let through. Sort of a homespun censorship effort. I was summarily banned by Cst. Vinet when I tried to post a comment bringing the origins of the site up for clarification. It appeared that he did not want to be publicly associated with it. There certainly seems to be a lack of “good news” items to maintain even a semblance of balance.
I tend to agree with kernelstubbs. Vinet seems to be a very long serving officer with the RCMP and never seems to have been elevated to a higher position. Disgruntled is a fitting moniker.
I wonder what the position of the RCMP is on this issue?
One way to distinguish a personal hobby from an nefarious front is to see when the site changes. If it is often during working hours, then this probably indicates that it is a nefarious front maintained professionall (during working hours). But it is not conclusive.
I found some interesting Taser related website fronts.
Taser’s own lawyer Micheal Brave owns websites using several variations of ‘Excited Delirium’ and he redirects them to a spokespuppet organization sponsored in part directly by a law firm owned by, guess who?, Taser’s lawyer Micheal brave.
This circle makes it clear exactly who is pushing ‘excited delirium’ as the cure-all explanation for the unexpectedly higher than expected lethality of tasers.
Excited-Delirium.com (don’t forget the dash!!).
Another innocent explanation is that this RCMP IT guy perhaps has an Internet business on the side; and one of his company’s services is private domain name registrations.
The next layer of the onion would be if this company is actually owned by the RCMP as a honeypot for such private registrations. LOL.
I think that there is an issue of privacy to be addressed. Tracking software is readily available for people having blogs, and most do. Who is making negative comments against the RCMP could easily be tracked. What is done with this information? What data bases are in play within the police realm?
If it is a private effort, ‘excited-delirium’ raises an excellent point as to the time the site is worked on. Is it company time and our tax dollars are being wasted on a private business or if it is on company time, what is the information for?
In the matter of ‘Get Real’s’ point, there is no counterbalance for open debate on issues that are corrected or done properly. No followup or even comment by the site administrator except to post more derogatory items. Almost entirely one sided, with no supportive links for research or independent verification such as the ‘excited-delirium’ site has.
There is also no disclaimer as to the site administrator. Conflict of interest in secondary jobs in the workplace are a common problem. One which is probably at issue with the site.
‘Another’ suggests a possible honeypot situation. Well worth a detailed examination of the records to confirm or rule out such an item. I am sure that would probably be some form of illegality as federal departments are not supposed to run businesses.
One could even go out on a limb and suggest that the various supportive comments could be coming from the IT person and RCMP to offset bad press that seems to regularly come to light.
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