By PATRICK ADRIAN
[email protected]
SPRINGFIELD, Vt. — This summer Springfield children or adolescents might find that their best behavior results in a conversation with a police officer. And possibly a free ice cream coupon.
The Springfield Police Department will participate this summer and fall in the “Creemee from a Cop” program, an promotional campaign by the Vermont Department of Agriculture to promote Vermont dairy through positive interactions between police officers and the community.
According to Springfield’s interim police chief Lt. Mark Fountain, Springfield police officers will carry coupons for a free ice cream in the community. If they see a youth demonstrating safe or positive behavior — such as wearing a seat belt or helmet when riding a bike, following pedestrian laws when crossing a street, or maybe helping someone with a chore — the officer will hand them a coupon and commend them.
For Fountain, what attracted him most to this program was the building of relationships through positive community interactions.
“It’s a win-win for everybody,” Fountain said. “This program is a great opportunity to relationship build, especially with youth in the community.”
Fountain said that cultivating better relationships between law enforcement and the community instills a needed element of trust between members and more effective work relations. Building trust and familiarity helps create safer situations. For example, when officers have to later investigate an incident at a youth’s home, which can be traumatic or stressful to a child, it often helps when the child recognizes an officer whom the child has built a positive relationship and feels trust.
The coupons provide an important tool, Fountain said, to increase attention by officers to the positive behaviors youth demonstrate in daily life.
“For me and the staff this program shifts our task to see the positive examples and to reinforce that to the youth,” Fountain said. “It gets the right message on cue.”
When discussing the program Fountain said he liked the element of surprise when an officer approaches a youth for something positive. The youth’s first reaction might be to assume he or she did something wrong, so that unexpected surprise can lead to a memorable and teachable experience.
This is the “Creemee from a Cop” program’s second summer of operation. Last year only about five or six municipal departments participated. This year there are 21 so far. Springfield, Norwich and Woodstock departments are the only participants in Windsor County to date.
Fountain said that he plans to roll out the plan with his staff as soon as he receives the coupons for the Department of Agriculture. He will also announce the program through press release and social media. The program will run until October or November.
Youth who receive coupons will be able to redeem them for free ice cream at Jonathan’s Summer Place, located in the Springfield Shopping Plaza on 2 Chester Road.
“[The owner] was very behind the program,” Fountain said. Fountain had reached out to the owner of Jonathan’s, which is the only dairy barn in the town.
Scott Watermand, communications director at the Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets, said yesterday that the coupons will be sent to participating police departments this week.
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