By Ian Holmes

Positive Nanaimo RCMP program catches attention of CNN

Oct 13, 2016 | 5:27 PM

NANAIMO — A program in Nanaimo aimed at building bridges between police and youth is in line for some high-profile media attention.

A crew from CNN was in Nanaimo last week profiling the Nanaimo RCMP’s Positive Ticketing Program in which officers hand out gift cards and city rec passes to young people for good deeds in the community, according to Const. Gary O’Brien.

“Sometimes it just takes that one moment where a young person hears that he or she is a good person, that they matter, that they can be successful and they don’t have to go down a life of crime and they can be whoever they want to be,” said program founder, retired RCMP Supt. Ward Clapham.

Clapham was formerly an inspector at the Nanaimo RCMP detachment. He then transferred to become the commanding officer of the Richmond RCMP, where he says the program launched in 2002. Clapham says the initiative started out slowly, then steadily grew in popularity.

O’Brien says CNN is working on a piece profiling steps police departments around North America are taking to improve relationships with people that they deal with. He says that their positive ticketing campaign is designed to build youth up as opposed to knock them down. He says opening doors to more positive relationships and having a lasting impact on young people is important, noting some youth don’t trust police.

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“As police officers, we recognize there’s a lot of negative stuff in our society now,” said O’brien. “We have to take that extra step to engage the youth and develop that relationship with them.”

O’Brien notes that their officers typically hand out 300 to 400 of the kind of tickets you actually want to get every year. He says tickets are awarded for things like holding a door for somebody or wearing a bike helmet.

“Many of our officers have responded that the kids remember that over the years and now they’re teenagers and young adults and they’re saying, ‘I remember that police officer came up to me and gave me that positive ticket, it was so cool.’”

Clapham says the program he started 14 years ago in Richmond was adopted by Nanaimo a few years later and eventually spread like wildfire. He say positive ticketing is used at thousands of police departments in a dozen countries who have handed out over one million tickets.

“We tweaked it to figure out what worked and what didn’t work.” Clapham said. “To take it from just being a public relations event to something deeper, it took us a couple years.”

Clapham now lives in Nanaimo and is proud of how a simple initiative blossomed into having a widespread positive impact.

“There’s nothing more pleasing to me, that full circle it’s working and helping in Nanaimo.”

O’Brien expects the CNN feature profiling the Nanaimo RCMP’s positive ticketing program will run in the coming months, but isn’t exactly sure when.