A Citation Isn't Always a Bad Thing

Traveling along on your way to work, your mind jumps ahead to what the plan is for dinner, who you have to meet for lunch, what time you need to pick up the kids and how many different after-school activities they have tonight. Then you see the red and blue lights go off in your rear-view mirror, and the only thoughts running through your head now aren't something you should share with most people.

However, for kids, that approaching officer isn't leaving them with negative thoughts, but excited, hyped-up feelings, and possibly a hankering for ice cream.

Fox Point and Bayside police have been running a bicycle helmet citation program for more than two decades. But these citations don't require a monetary forfeiture, it's like winning the lottery.

The program offers rewards to children wearing bike helmets. If the child has a helmet on, and is riding safely, they earn a citation and a coupon for a free treat such as an ice cream cone or French fries at a local establishment. The program helps bolster the importance of wearing a helmet and riding safely.

"Sometimes you see kids going back and forth in front of the police station in hopes they will get something," Fox Point Sgt. Amy Resnick said with a chuckle.

According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, wearing a bicycle helmet while biking reduces the risk of head injury by 85 percent.

Resnick has been around since the program's inception. She estimates that more than 1,000 coupons have been given away over the life of the program.

The bicycle helmet citation program is derived from outreach safety programs at Bayside and Fox Point schools.

"It was a great program to culminate all of the bike safety programs in the schools," she said. The bike helmet citation program "augments the (school programs) where it is a positive reinforcement to get the kids to wear them."

As much as the program is promoting the wearing of bicycle helmets, it also allows the police department to build and nurture its relationship with the community. 

"The kids recognize the officers are here in a positive sense because they get a good, positive contact," Resnick said. "It could be a tot riding a bike with training wheels up to a middle school (student), because the middle schools have been the toughest to try to convince them to keep wearing their helmet."

On occasion parents who are wearing a helmet when they are bicycling with their children receive a coupon for a free coffee drink.

"I always got a big kick out of seeing the parents riding with the kids," Resnick said.