TO THE RESCUE

Youth At Risk Team Officers Helped A Langley Teen Get Off Drugs And
Stay Out Of Trouble.

All and all it has been a good week for us at Langley RCMP detachment.
For the most part serious crimes have been kept to a minimum, and our
members wrapped up some great investigations resulting in the arrests
of several prolific car thieves and break and enter suspects. I am
hopeful these efforts will have a noticeable impact on our property
crime rates.

This week I would like to highlight one of our successes from what
some may refer to as the softer side of police work. In the spring of
2008, the detachment staffed a two officer Youth at Risk team. The
team's primary mandate is to partner with community resource agencies
to identify youth at high risk to enter into or continue with a
criminal lifestyle. Support and intervention is provided to minimize
the likelihood of criminal activity, and where necessary, targeted
police enforcement is undertaken.

One of the youth engaged through this initiative definitely fell
within the definition of prolific offender, having generated more than
50 calls for police service in a 17 month period. This young man's
activities included a variety of property, weapon and drug offences
that were often committed while suffering the effects of substance
abuse.

Over a period of many months this youth was provided with a variety of
support services and subjected to enforcement action on more than one
occasion. Today, a measure of the success of these efforts can be
found in the fact the police have not received a single complaint with
regard to this youth's activities in the past seven months.

The officers and support workers who assisted can take pride in
knowing that this young man attributes his decision to undertake
rehabilitation to the relationships they formed with him. If anyone
were to ever doubt this statement, they only need consider that he
invited our two Youth at Risk officers to attend a ceremony this
evening in which he will be receiving a Clean and Sober award. In this
ceremony, he will be recognized by his treatment program for his
accomplishment in abstaining from all drugs and alcohol for the past
six months.

Tonight's ceremony will be a watershed moment in this individual's
life and a success story for the community.

Supt. Derek Cooke is the officer in charge of the Langley RCMP Detachment