Latest news with #ChrisHanson
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Free bus travel for veterans and military on VE Day anniversary
Veterans, cadets, and serving military personnel will be able to enjoy free bus travel across Oxfordshire on VE Day. This year marks eight decades since World War Two came to an end in Europe, with celebrations taking place across the country on Thursday, May 8. To mark the occasion, Stagecoach West is offering free travel to those in uniform or carrying a military ID, veterans with a badge or medal, and cadets in uniform. Chris Hanson, managing director at Stagecoach West, said: "We're incredibly proud to employ many veterans, and it's a privilege to recognise the bravery and dedication of our armed forces, cadets, and veterans. ADVERTISEMENT "Offering free travel on VE 80 Day is a small gesture of appreciation for the enormous contribution made by our service men and women, past and present." Stagecoach has been a member of the Armed Forces Covenant since March 2015, recognising the value of serving military, regular and reservists, veterans, and military families to both the country and businesses across the country. In recent years, the firm has shown its support to the armed forces community by also allowing free travel over armed forces weekends and remembrance days. The latest offer will also be available on the bus operator's services in Bristol, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Swindon, and Wiltshire, and is backed by the company's employee-led veterans network.
BBC News
18-02-2025
- Automotive
- BBC News
Stagecoach West launches 55 electric buses in Oxford
The boss of a bus company has said Oxford is "at the forefront of electrification" after the launch of new electric West has partnered with Oxfordshire County Council to roll out 55 new electric buses, with the aim of reducing comes after a report into the impact of 159 electric buses in the city showed road nitrogen oxide emissions dropped from 40% to 32%.Managing director of the bus firm, Chris Hanson, said cities across the UK were now "catching up". "It almost got the first city to go almost fully electric but Coventry just beat us to it," he said."Oxford is right at the forefront of electrification and while lots of cities this year are going to start catching us up, actually Oxford is streets ahead and that's really fantastic."The Oxford Source Apportionment report showed buses contributed 4% - a 28% reduction since the last such also explained cars accounted for 48% of total road transport emissions of nitrogen oxide, the harmful gas produced by vehicles, according to data measured in County Council has confirmed it is planning to introduce other measures to tackle air pollution, including a pilot scheme using traffic filters in several areas. Councillor Andrew Gant said: "The zero emissions zone started on a small pilot area in the centre of Oxford has shown really promising results and will be rolled out over a bigger area over the course of the next few years." You can follow BBC Oxfordshire on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
Yahoo
06-02-2025
- Yahoo
To Catch a Vigilante: How a dangerous viral trend is putting real child victims at risk
Groups in Northeast Florida are taking the law into their own hands, filming sting operations against suspected child predators and posting the videos online. But law enforcement that deals with these cases warns the vigilante 'To Catch a Predator' groups do more harm than good and real child victims pay the price. Public confrontations oftentimes involve violence and sometimes even shots fired. Searching 'To Catch a Predator' on social media is more likely to turn up amateur vigilante videos than clips of the original Chris Hanson show, and there are even examples here in Northeast Florida. RELATED: Local authorities warn of dangerous new trend involving teens luring alleged sexual predators 'We saw several years back a rise in these trends and then I think we kind of went into a lull. But we have here recently seen an increase,' Detective Ryan Ellis with the Human Exploitation Group at the Clay County Sheriff's Office said. Ellis works on child exploitation cases for CCSO. He estimates dozens of the vigilante groups operate in our region. 2019 STORY: Local man says he's working to expose sex predators 'I don't think that they really understand the big picture, and while some of them are in it for good reasons, some of them are not,' Ellis said. The groups generally target suspected child predators by posing as children online, soliciting conversation with suspects and then confronting them in public. But Ellis argued these private efforts can be extremely dangerous for the vigilantes and the general public. READ: 'Hard to believe': Neighbors react to arrest of accused sexual predator and former elected official 'Sometimes these groups can confront people who are armed with firearms. They're violent individuals, have extensive criminal histories,' Ellis said. One example happened just last year in Jacksonville, though it was the mother of a victim, rather than a vigilante group, who learned just how dangerous these public confrontations can be. After finding out her underaged daughter was being texted by an adult, she set up a meeting with the man at a Popeyes restaurant. READ: Cyber tip helped save a 3-year-old Northeast Florida child who was sexually abused The suspect threatened her with a gun. When law enforcement was called, the situation ended with an officer involved shooting. 'These are extremely volatile situations. These pose a high level of danger and risk for an array of reasons,' Ellis said. READ: 'Scorched earth': Ride-along gives inside look at JSO's search for suspects who killed 7-year-old Ellis noted law enforcement takes several precautions to ensure confrontations with suspected child predators don't end in violence. 'We take a great deal, great deal of time and in research into looking into locations, vetting them out, doing de-conflictions to make sure that other law enforcement groups are not in the area,' Ellis said. 'Also making sure that we're not on certain protected property or private property, or we're not in an area such as close to a playground or an area where children might congregate.' And due to the amateur nature of the vigilante sting operations, Ellis explained they often create more problems for law enforcement than they solve. READ: Behind the scenes of Jacksonville's bridge inspections: Ensuring safety and longevity 'We oftentimes see that these individuals also engage in entrapment-type behavior, which causes us issues on the legal end. We also deal with issues of venue. Where a chatter is, or where a UC is, and where a suspect might be could be in multiple different jurisdictions and then they confront them in another jurisdiction,' Ellis said. Even in the rare instance an arrest is made, more often than not prosecutions are unattainable, according to Ellis. 'We're in this to protect children. We're in this to put offenders behind bars. And we're not in this for clicks or for likes. This is to help protect actual real children,' Ellis said. [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks] Cleaning up the mess left behind by the groups can pull resources away from cases involving legitimate child victims. 'We might be working an actual live child victim case and then we end up getting pulled away to something that we think could actually be a legitimate child that's being exploited on the internet and it ends up being certain groups that are talking to these individuals,' Ellis said. At the end of the day, Ellis argued regardless of how noble the intent of the vigilantes may be, there are plenty of safer and more legitimate ways of reporting crimes against children. [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter] 'Some of these people are in it for the right reasons and they truly want to help. The sheriff's office is hiring. Fill out an application,' Ellis said. 'There are many other ways to put skills to use that can help law enforcement or can help victims.' Ellis noted the vigilante activities are not technically illegal, although sometimes they could face other charges like trespassing, assault, or false imprisonment depending on the situation. He said some states are looking at laws prohibiting the activities due to the risk the pose to the public and legitimate child exploitation cases. Click here to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Action News Jax live.
