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.