I read the article you wrote about “tickets” (given out by police to kids for positive behaviour). I was totally and delightfully surprised.
READ MORE: Chilliwack RCMP ‘ticket’ youth for doing the right thing
I had no idea such a program existed. It’s value is totally immeasurable, and I can validate that for you. It happened to me many years ago and has never left. I was a young man and a new driver living in Prince Rupert. I got pulled over for running a stop sign. The officer grilled me and made it clear that the wheels must stop turning for at least half a second. If they don’t stop for at least half second it is known as a “Prince Rupert Hesitation.”
If I ever do it again he’ll give me a $20 ticket. At which point he let me go. Legally he could have ticketed me. But he applied care, compassion and generosity.
To this day you can count the number of times I’ve done a “Prince Rupert Hesitation” on my fingers and not run out of fingers. and that includes stop signs in mall parking lots and remote uncontrolled rail crossing with no other vehicles anywhere in sight.
You can only imagine the safety that comes from police acting like that. The safety factor in 53 years of not running a stop sign can’t be measured, but it is there.
David Morgan
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