The city of Moline Acres, MO is less than five miles from the city of Ferguson where, due to the tragic events of the past year, the relationship between police officers and the public are far from comfortable.
So when the Moline Acres Police Department recently announced that they plan to issue more tickets to residents in the city, you would think there would be an absolute outcry. These tickets, however, should actually go a long way towards both humanizing Moline Acres police officers and bridging the gap between the public and law enforcement.
In the below video from USA Today, you'll see how the department has decided to issue "positive" tickets to local residents they find doing good things for their fellow man around town.
"The children and the people in our community need something positive right now," said Officer Pamela Ford in the USA Today video, "where they won't think that law enforcement is all negative.
Reverend Larry Rice, of New Life Evangelistic Church, brought the idea (which he says was developed in Vancouver, Canada) to local police as a way to help the community become better acquainted with its police force and vice versa.
"Within five to seven years [in Vancouver], they saw the crime rate drop by fifty percent," Ford tells USA Today. "Police officers got to know and build relationships with young people."
And the "positive" tickets aren't just a nice way of saying, "Good job," to local residents; they can actually cash them in at the city court to redeem gift certificates to a local pizza place and even bus tickets.
Not only does it sound like the "positive" tickets initiative is a good idea for a Missouri region that's hurting from Ferguson's fallout, but it's also something that people in the community actually seem to be looking forward to.
Here's hoping that it works wonders and other police departments around the country start to adopt the idea. We could all use a little more positivity in our daily lives.
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