A plan to start issuing the young people of the Westlock area and the county with tickets for doing good things is gaining momentum.
RCMP Const. Janelle Meyer is championing the Positive Ticketing Program and she hopes the first citations, which would include a small reward, could be written by April 1.
“It’s in order to start a relationship with kids in the neighbourhoods,” Meyer said. “Instead of stopping them for doing something bad, you’re recognizing they are doing something good in the community.”
While still in its early stages, the plan would see kids and youth receive a ticket for doing the right thing, behaving in a positive way or helping members of the community.
“It might be for wearing a helmet while riding a bike, or helping someone across the street, or shoveling the sidewalk” she said. “It’s about positive activity.”
She said both town and county councils are supportive of the idea, as are some of the local businesses that have been approached.
All RCMP officers in Westlock will be able to issue the tickets and the detachment’s Staff Sgt. is behind the plan.
“It’s not just going to be me handing out these tickets but all of the police officers in the detachment doing it as well,” Meyer said.
The positive tickets would include an explanation for the recipient’s parent or guardian, an acknowledgment of why the ticket is being given and the type of prize offered.
At this stage rewards might include passes to the Aquatic Centre or Rotary Spirit Centre, or coupons that could be redeemed at local business.
The program is designed to foster positive relationships and interactions between young people and police and is more personal take on initiatives like the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program, which currently runs in schools.
“It’s good to have positive interaction with kids so they feel safe with us. We can build a relationship and a contact, so if they hear of something bad that’s going on, they feel comfortable telling us so we can help them instead of being afraid of us or nervous about us,” Meyer said.
Recipients would be approached in a non-confronting way, with officers using tact when issuing tickets.
“I wouldn’t necessarily go with sirens or anything like that,” Meyer said. “You can just show up in a police car, get out of your vehicle and go talk to them.”
“I wouldn’t want to alarm or startle anybody, it’s just to start a conversation,” she added.
Similar programs currently run in Fort Saskatchewan and in Richmond, B.C., where the Positive Tickets have formed part of a 41 per cent drop in youth offending in that part of Metro Vancouver.
