Police in the Scarborough area hope to build better relationships with neighbourhood residents and in a bizarre twist they are counting on a new kind of ticketing blitz to help them do so.
Officers in 42 Division will launch a “positive ticket” campaign today, in which they will give citations to residents for performing good deeds rather than endangering others.
Unlike a real ticket, which may cost people hundreds of dollars, positive tickets will come with rewards like a free slice of pizza or a gift certificate to a neighbourhood store.
“We want to break down the barriers of communication between police and residents and it’s not even necessarily about residents giving us information. Sometimes it’s hard to even start a conversation. People want to say hi but they feel uncomfortable,” Const. Patricia Hung told CP24.com Wednesday morning. “Hopefully this campaign can start to change that. It’s a great way to engage the community.”
The positive ticketing campaign has been underway on a trial basis for several months, but today marks the official launch of the program.
So far officers have given tickets out to a numbers of people, including a woman who provided assistance to a man in medical distress and a seven-year-old girl who held the door open for officers as they responded to a call.
“What we say to officers is that if you can say thank you to someone you can give them a ticket,” Hung told CP24.com.
The program will be run with the support of several local businesses and will hopefully continue running indefinitely, Hung added.
