PIERCE TOWNSHIP, Ohio -- Getting cited by the police doesn't always have to be a bad thing in Pierce Township.
Police Chief Jeff Bachman said his men have added a new type of ticket to their arsenal: A yellow slip recognizing the actions of residents who take time to do the right thing for others.
"You'll get a call from maybe a disabled motorist, someone with a flat tire, and you pull up and someone is already changing that tire," Bachman said.
Those are the people the new golden tickets, each of which comes with a $10 Walmart gift card, will honor. Bachman said he hoped the initiative would inject some happiness into his community and help people connect with police in a positive way.
"We see a lot of negativity on the news, in our job, but why not accent the positive?" he said. "People do good things."
Twenty-one-year-old Sadie LaRoque and 20-year-old Matthew Murphy were the latest golden ticket recipients this week.
"We were sitting in the parking lot of the movie theater after our movie got out, and we saw some teenagers acting suspicious -- leaning up against somebody's car, touching it," LaRoque said.
These witnesses turned investigators wanted to do the right thing, so they approached the teenagers and jotted down their license plate information, which went a long way for police.
"We have great residents," Officer Philip Gammon said. "If we get a chance to recognize the good things that they're doing, I think we should take the opportunity to do that."
