A national program to have cops hand out "positive tickets" to people who do good deeds has been reaping benefits. When cops see someone doing a good deed, they give the person a "positive ticket" which is also a coupon for free food, discounts in stores, or even tickets to a sports event. From a cop that started the program: Instead of handing out violations for negative behavior, we would "catch" kids doing good things and reward them with a positive ticket. This idea totally went against the old paradigm of the reactive, post-incident, corrective policing model. I guess you could say we were still the hunters, but now we were hunting for good behavior. This was a completely new mindset for my officers. Some of them quickly jumped on board. For others, it took awhile. We partnered with lots of organizations and businesses in the community to provide the positive tickets coupons for free food, movie tickets or entrance to something fun. The tickets were a great alternative for kids who would otherwise be bored, "hanging" on the streets, and possibly getting into trouble with the law. We gave out tickets for all sorts of good behavior wearing a helmet while biking or skateboarding, using the crosswalks, skateboarding in designated areas, getting to school on time, speaking respectfully, etc. We started out small, and then the program began to grow. The community started supporting us more. Organizations donated huge numbers of coupons and passes. But it wasn't about the ticket. People started to realize the potential they had to encourage positive behavior in youth. The program just started to explode. Then even the skeptics got on board. It's not about how many tickets are redeemed. The ticket is the gateway to the relationship. What's most important is that the ticket is a positive event, and when the youth sees the officer the next time, it will start off on a positive note. If you reward good behavior, your return on investment will be more good behavior. This is not rocket science; we (especially police officers) simply don't reward and celebrate positive behavior enough. The Richmond RCMP Detachment, where I worked, was handing out 40,000 positive tickets a year (a 3 to 1 ratio compared to violations). As a result of several youth prevention initiatives, including positive tickets, our youth-related service calls dropped by almost 50%, keeping more than 1,000 youth out of trouble with the law. We have maintained a similar level over the years. Oh well, its a program of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. It sounded way to good to be program for USA cops. But that's not the rewarding part. The part that makes it worthwhile is pulling into a parking lot full of kids and instead of running away from me, they swarm me. The rewarding part is driving down the street, looking out my window at some kids, and having them wave at me. The real result is seeing a youth who was on the edge of crime now far from it because he or she made a friend with one of my officers through positive tickets. The payoff is that kids don't feel I am hunting them anymore; they see me as a friend. The full story http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/feb/20/positive-tickets-police-alternative Imagine a cop cruiser pulling into a parking lot in Ferguson, or Philadelphia, or Albuquerque, and instead of all the kids taking off or saying something like "Hands up! Don't shoot!", they were actually glad to see the cop. Wouldn't it be nice for "Officer Friendly" to return to our streets, and for "to protect and serve" to be more than just a joke?
If a cop pulled me over to give me a ticket for being "good" I would seriously get out of my vehicle and "have words" him for wasting my time with such an idiotic action. If you want to send a cop onto a school to play babysitter with the little kids then fine but don't insult me with crap like that.
Come on man, these are truant officers, they work with kids and a lot of their job is being a social worker.
There are lots of police mentoring programs targeted at youths and reaching them before they join gangs, etc. Just google it. One doesn't notice them, however, if all they are doing is looking for ways in which to demonize police. We have a lot of that going on right now.
Funny - I don't fear the cops. "Protect and serve" isn't a joke, its what the cops do. It's unfortunate, but the logical reasoning held by most people who say what you do is the same as a racist. Let me explain. Racists usually base their hatred in events, even if a limited number. They see more black guys involved in crime, these few black people were rude to them, this black guy did x to an extended family member. Whatever it is, they usually try to base it in events, but they only need a handful to justify that few. They'll judge forty million blacks based off of their encounters with a handful. Likewise, a lot of people are saying that the police are racist, scum, etc. Based off what? Well in the last couple years we've had a couple news-hitting incidents in which black teens being shot by cops (or wanna-be cops). And so a million peace officers are judged based off (usually misperceptions) of what a few cops do.
Unfortunately, Perception is 9/10ths of Reality these days. And it's magnified by the selective Ratings grab mentality of the Media, who only inflame the already simmering tensions.
I doubt you would do any such thing, but not to worry, I doubt you will be getting pulled over for being polite.
I get pulled over all the time actually. I am just one of those lucky guys. But I have never been pulled from my car and shot. [video=youtube;igQDvYOt_iA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igQDvYOt_iA[/video]
Exactly what I thought and generally I am pretty pro police and positive reinforcement, just not together. Soon they would be setting up roadblocks...
Why does that no come as any surprise. Neither have hundreds of Millions of other Americans, don't feel too special.
Although it seems like a nice gesture on the surface, if I'm in my car it's because I need to be somewhere and definitely don't want to be stopped not having a clue what I'm being stopped for.
I understand your point in comparing this concern over police abuse with racism. Basically, you are saying that people jump to a general conclusion based on very limited experience. Lets review the situation you outline, but first remember that "racism" is an unfounded bias. As you wrote, a person sees a particular group of people involved in crime, being rude, hurting members of his family. That person is a victim in every sense of the word. That victims direct, real life experience tells him that people in that group are dangerous, should not be trusted, should be avoided, and should be treated with suspicion. Maybe its a local gang, maybe its the local cops. For my purposes, I will just call them cops. That victim naturally extends that view to the larger population. When the victim encounters or views cops in a different city, and those cops act just like the cops that victimized him, then its completely rational for the victim to assume those cops and his hometown cops are cut from the same cloth. In city after city, after seeing victims who suffer the same injustices that he suffered, and seeing the cops act and respond in the same manner as his local cops, the victim eventually assumes that all cops are bad. Thats not an unfounded bias, but a conclusion based on real world evidence and experience. It does not mean there are no good cops, it does mean that there are enough bad cops to tarnish all cops and to ruin the relationship between the cops and the public. And when the good cops do nothing to police their profession and remove the bad cops, then there are no true good cops. It depends upon your exposure and knowledge of the problem. If you do not interact with cops or the legal system (I used to call it the "Justice System", but I am not so naïve today), and you do not put in some time to get educated, you could see this as a case of a few black teens being blown out of proportion. This is not limited to a few cases of black teens, or a few select incidents which make good tv. Estimates of innocent people killed by cops range from 500 per year to over 1,000 (other threads on this ongoing). SWAT type midnight no-knock raids have increased from 7,000 a year 25 years ago to about 50,000 a year today - and cops make mistakes, killing many innocent people and terrorizing many more. Search on something like "swat raid gone wrong". Its standard procedure for cops to kill the family dogs, even when the dog is not a threat, and even when the cops enter a persons property for no official reason, cops kill about 6,000 dogs a year. The killing of pets has reached the point it has even been given its own name - search on "puppycide". In Albuquerque, the cops have used such excessive force and killed so many people that the residents refer to the APD as "Another Person Dead". Cop abuse and immunity is systemic. And the fundamental problem is that the cops almost never pay for their mistakes and abuses, even when the overwhelming evidence is against them and a non-cop would be sentenced to prison automatically. Cops have created an us-vs-them mentality, they have elevated "officer safety" to the Prime Directive. Cops have placed themselves above the law, they have gotten away with it, and they know it.
