TICKET TO HAPPINESS

Some people might find it odd that police are cracking down on pot smoking
and vandalism by handing out trespassing tickets.

Why not bust them on the more serious charge? What does a trespassing
ticket do, anyway?

For one thing, a ticket is $120. That's expensive, even to kids who have
part-time jobs. It also means those same teenagers are less likely to have
the money to buy more of the drugs that got them into trouble in the first
place.

But the best part is that a fine is a summary conviction where someone is
presumed guilty unless they contest the ticket. The onus is on the offender
to go to court to fight the charge. It's not up to the cops to present
evidence to get a conviction.

In the meantime, parents also get notified about what their kids have been
doing. That has to be a great deterrent to kids like the girl who, when
caught, admitted she had lied to her parents about where she was going that
night.

Police ticketed her for her after-hours visit to Petrie Island. We hope
she's grounded for a couple of weekends.

One reason police pushed so hard for more than three years to have no
trespassing signs set up at schools was so they could ticket the kids who
were breaking things. We used to cover stories of custodians picking up
after vandals every Monday, or portables that went up in flames. Reported
incidents are down since the police were given the power to cite for
trespassing.

They have proved that there's merit in the approach.

Trespassing tickets follow the same logic as traffic tickets. Yes, traffic
tickets are supposed to curb bad driving behaviour. But hit an offender
enough times in the wallet and they start to think more about their actions.

In the case of trespassing, if they get caught enough times, they'll simply
go somewhere else. Police will be right there behind them.

That's the beauty of this new/old approach. Only a few people cause damage.
Even with their youthful exuberance, most kids know how to behave. But
adults also know that kids can and will get into trouble without extensive
supervision.

You might think it's unfair to the kids, but we all know where a little
"fun" can lead.

Half the battle to combatting vandalism and trouble in our parks is keeping
the troublemakers out of them in the first place.