Crime prevention begins at an early age, says Mac’s Convenience Store’s vice-president of operations for central Canada.
To help put as stop to it, and create good relations between Thunder Bay’s youth and the police service charged to protect the community from harm, the company is giving away 2,000 free Frosters to reward youngsters for good behaviour.
The Positive Ticketing campaign, also sponsored by the Thunder Bay crime prevention committee, is part of a province-wide effort, Tom Moher said Monday at the local launch.
“It’s a great opportunity to provide something meaningful for the police force to allow them to reach out and engage with local youth,” Moher said.
“This is actually a program that we’ve run for several years across Ontario. The key thing from this is that something like this is a longer-term success story.”
The hope, said Moher, whose stores have been hit eight times by robbers in 2012, and more than 30 times in 2011, is to encourage youngsters to think on the right side of the law.
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“If it means they make positive choices, then that was a win, and this was very much a success,” Moher said. “And that’s what we see as a successful program going from this.”
Thunder Bay Police Service Const. Mark Caccamo said the program sheds positive light on officers out on the street, as opposed to the negative reputation they often are met with.
“Rewarding the kids for good behaviour, instead of reprimanding them for bad behaviour will put a spin where they gravitate toward being good, because they get a reinforcement,” Caccamo said.
The results could help fight crime too, he added.
“They’re more apt to approach us and talk to us on a day-to-day basis about anything. That would give them an opportunity to act in a good way, as opposed to a negative way, to seek attention.”
Earning the reward, a coupon for a free 710 milliletre Froster, is simple, Caccamo said.
“We’re going to be looking for kids wearing their bicycle helmets or maybe even taking the initiative to approach us with information they know that could solve a crime and things like that,” he said.
