Negative PR you don’t need
It’s been a while (thank God) since we’ve had a story about a scam magazine that aggressively pitches ads to local businesses claiming they are an official publication of the local police association. But it appears you can’t keep a lucrative con game down. The most recent tale of deceit comes from Canada, where an outfit known as Cedar Publishing with a post office box at a local UPS store in Edmonton, publishes a magazine called Police Newsmagazine. Cedar Publishing describes itself as “an independent publishing agency which specializes in the creation, production and placement of custom print-media publications for non-profit organizations and professional associations.”
These so-called publishing companies, with their extremely aggressive ad sales tactics, have done a lot of damage to the image of both law enforcement agencies and the associations representing the officers. In polling a majority of the public does not distinguish between the association and the chief and command staff. To most citizens they are all “the police department” so these businesses have a negative impact on the entire profession.
In recent months, police in Winnipeg say they’ve gotten complaints from local business owners saying they’re being solicited to purchase ads in Police Newsmagazine.”There’s no affiliation between that magazine and police in Winnipeg and police in Manitoba,” Det. Sgt. Shaun Veldman said. “People are being left with the false impression the magazine is associated with police agencies or the Winnipeg Police Association, Veldman said. “We have had people also make a complaint that they are very insistent.” Read the story from The Winnipeg Free Press.