No guns, no tasers?
That's not much help.
These new officers are gonna get the shit kicked out of themselves.
If I was a criminal I would be rejoicing.

This sounds like a job for a caring, nurturing type of person, kind of like a joke in a uniform. The type of officier that would burst into tears watching one of the regular force wrestling in the the gutter with one of the animals down on Third Avenue.

Great news! More political correctness.

To the public if one was wearing the uniform of a police office whould one not be a police officer with all the powers of one? Only in Canada you say!

And this is supposed to help the situation?
It is no damn wonder the criminals have the upper hand!
A complete waste of time and money when what we REALLY need is more real cops out on the streets!
Rack up another one for the bad guys!

Used primarily for education and enhance their presence in schools?

What's wrong with that? Probably the best place to reach our youth is while they are still in school.

Their purpose is education, not enforcement. I support the effort and would like to encourage them. Chester

You got it right Chester...
I think it is a good program...
though it appears as if others don't agree with us...
And Andy if you read again it says that this will free up officers to do street duties....
Lets give it a chance before we torpedo it.

Chester, BCracer: Police have been trying for decades to reach the youth in the schools and look what is happening....Drugs, youth gangs, the huge increase of serious crime within the ages of 12-18.

While I support the intent of the program I have to agree that it is akin to having a guard dog with no teeth. You don't give an rcmp uniform to someone to wear (visibility factor) and not expect them to be confronted by some kind of miscreant during their duties.

No powers of arrest? Totally useless especially when in the criminal code the average citizen is allowed to make arrests.
Hello to another useless part in a broken machine.

And it is time for chambers to move on, too many problems with him in prince george

Don't agree that Chambers should get keelhauled for this..
even if his time might be up or not...
this policy wasn't set by him...

A lot of PR has been going on lately...
be it right or wrong...

I think these officers shuld be given a chance...

and yes you can't help those who have decided they ae going to be law breakers...unfortunately

I'm up for anything that will try to encourage the youth but I don't really think it will work unless you get them at a young enough age. I'm talking preschool/kindergarten age. It has to be one of those programs that will make an impact and something that will stick out in their brains for the rest of their brain developing years into adulthood.

My daughter's grade 5 class graduated from the D.A.R.E program this year and at the ending ceremony they put on little skits. The kids did quite well but I left there wondering how many of the kids actually "got it". My daughter enjoyed the program mostly but wished they spent less time filling in their booklets and more time talking with the Constable about things that really mattered. (those were her words.) She would've liked to have heard real life stories edited for their age. Talking like that with kids tends to get their attention more.
My daughter also said it was hard to pay attention because it was like watching a boring math equation being written on the board. She said they heard a lot of statistics and thought the program wasn't enough to scare them away from drugs and alcohol. (Don't worry I do that as my job as parent.)

I am more than willing to give it a chance BCRacer, but it seems not much ever changes.
I also agree with Imorg.
The message never seems to quite get through and when one program runs it's course,somebody comes up with another one with the same end result.
I still think the only thing that will even begin to help is a higher police profile (more real cops) and some penalties with some teeth in them.
As Imorg say's... the machine really IS broken,and I really feel sorry for the cops trying to do their job.
It must be extremely frustrating.

While I am not against this, what impact will this have? If this was merely educating our youth the need for a baton and pepper spray is pointless.
We need more police presence via foot patrol. The way to do that would be to have a dozen of these CSOs at minimum patroling and reaching out to build community relations.
Having one or two leaves much to be desired. This individual CSO would be nothing more than an RCMP mascot imo. (All showmanship and PR with no oomph!)
Wish our new CSO the best nonetheless.

Penalties with teeth for crimes...
I couldn't agree more...and have been saying that for years.
but that is another issue and different people....

I think there is no place for dental assistance and dental hygienists. I want the real thing all the time, a dentist.

I don't want a bookkeeper. I want a chartered accountant.

I don't want law clerks doing research on my legal cases. I want a lawyer.

Get with it. You want to free up senior people from doing mundane tasks? Develop a system which allows those "mundane" or less critical tasks, or more specialized tasks (whichever way you want to look at it) to be done by people who can master those tasks better in a more effective team effort.

I think it is a great way to boost effective delivery of a wide range of programs the RCMP is responsible for on a daily basis.

Remember, it is a pilot program, even though they are not required to know how to fly.

;-)

Heidi, the DARE program originated over 30 years ago in Los Angeles Calif...Daryl Gates was the police chief there..................and what since then?
More drugs, more gangs, more violence, more death and more youth causing it all.

It took the rcmp over 20 years to adopt the program in Canada.....If it has a positive impact on one kid then yes its a good thing...but in total many street cops feel that DARE is a waste of time on resources...because of the waves of youth falling prey to alcohol and drug usage.......(even if it starts with marijuhana)

There was an RCMP report that came out a while ago that basically statistically proved that the DARE program wasnt really making a dent in keeping youth off the street away from the drugs, etc...but no way did that become public....swept under the carpet it was.....

Shouldn't parents keep kids off the streets?
Why do we need the RCNP to do that?

Yes HD, I agree. It starts with effective parenting. I see many youth these days born with the proverbial silver spoon whoose parents are willfully negligent on instilling the morals or whatever it takes to keep them from trying out these substances.
Heck , some parents are drug abusers themselves so there is no good role models.

If you need to ask Does DARE work, just google it...with the same question in the subject line....some interesting reading.

OH and yes, the CSO's are not Chamber's doing...he is just following policy....but he has been in PG a long time and was at the centre of quite a controversy with his GF runnning the city hall side of the detachment.....He should be moving on.

When I was young we had a 9 PM curfew...maybe they should bring it back...

The Brave and Dare programs give the kids the tools...it is up to them as to whether they use them or not.

If these and other programs get to one child and set them on the right road...I think it a total sucess.
I think the sucess rate is better than that though.....

Wow lmorg I didn't recognize you at first...

:) thanks for the nice comment back. I appreciate it.

You can spot the kids at the school who you can picture going down the wrong path. I just want to swoop them up now and bring them home before it's too late.

Kids learn and relate to other kids well. The schools also have a big buddy system where starting in grade 3 the kids would go to the kindergarten class and get assigned a partner and read to them. They would keep the same kids together until the end of the year. The 5 yr. olds really looked up to their big buddies so instead of reading just any books to these kids why not give them booklets to read about consequences of drug/alcohol abuse? It would make the older kids feel proud of themselves to make such an important difference (and maybe learn something new) and the younger kids already respecting their big buddies might get something more out of it. But in the name of my daughter please don't make the booklets boring!!!

;)

Kids helping kids. Free up even more officers.

heidi,
new poster! while I agree that kids helping kids works very effectively, unfortunately as 'kids' hit their teens, inspite of what has previously happened, peer pressure rears its ugly head!

Ah yes, didn't you just love those years? So glad I respected my parents.

:)

BCRacer, I also recall the days when the air raid siren went off at 10:00pm and you better be at home or off the streets. Did it crimp our freedoms? Probably. Chester

It was either be home or you were home for a long time for not obeying....
Gee in this day and age I am sure they could fine a way to call that child abuse....lol