Pubdate: Tue, 15 Dec 2009 Source: Langley Advance (CN BC) Copyright: 2009 Lower Mainland Publishing Group Inc. Contact: http://www.langleyadvance.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1248 Author: Derek Cooke, Special to the Langley Advance Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth) 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 - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D