A Weyburn police officer, Const. Melinda Mintenko, will be receiving a national award for developing the concept for the “Ride’s On Us” program.
The program offered people a free ride home from a bar or public place selling alcohol, if the person was willing to hand over their keys, with a ride provided by a local taxi service.
The “Ride’s On Us” program ran for about 18 months and made an appreciable difference in the numbers of people charged with impaired driving in Weyburn, which led to her nomination to receive this award.
Const. Mintenko will receive the National Traffic Award on Tuesday, Aug. 13, at the national conference for the Canadian Association of Police Chiefs in Calgary, with Weyburn Chief Marlo Pritchard and Deputy Chief Rod Stafford both to be present as well.
“This award looks at initiatives that have had public safety improvements for the community,” said Chief Pritchard. “Every year there are a number of organizations that submit individuals or a program for this award.”
He noted that also vying for the award were much larger police organizations, such as the RCMP, the Ontario Provincial Police, and police departments like Calgary’s, but this year this national award will be going to Weyburn, to Const. Mintenko for her work in developing and promoting this program.
“It’s a really good news story, because of the community support. It was a community program. We couldn’t have done it without the support of the community and businesses,” said Chief Pritchard.
Asked if the program might make a return, he said they wanted to let it rest for a little while, and they may bring back a modified version of the program at a later date, such as around the Christmas-New Year’s holiday time.
“It’s definitely in the back of our minds,” he said, noting that when a program runs for a length of time, it begins to lose its impact.
“I’m not saying it won’t come back. There’s always a place for something like that,” said Chief Pritchard, noting the program wrapped up in January. He suggested if the program is allowed to rest for a year or so and a modified version is brought back, it can have a strong impact again like it did the first time.
