By LINDA KELLETT

C-S-E News Staff

ST. JOHNSVILLE — “Get caught” doing something good.

In order to promote bike safety here, St. Johnsville Police Chief Diana Callen early this week told members of the St. Johnsville community policing group that she would like to initiate a special rewards program for youths “caught” wearing their bike helmets this summer.

By law, children under 14 are required to wear bike helmets. Unfortunately, Callen said department personnel see many children without protective headgear. By law, they should be sent home.

In a twist, she proposed that officers reward compliant bicyclists with Slushy gift certificates in order to change perceptions and reward positive behaviors.

It was one of several objectives and goals that she outlined during the group’s monthly meeting at the Community House Monday night.

Among other items on her wish list included the selection of a name for the group, which formed last summer to establish connections between village residents and local law enforcement officials, to foster citizens’ involvement in their community, and to curb the incidence of larcenies and other criminal acts — including trespassing and vandalism incidents at St. Johnsville schools.

Before the end of the current academic year, Callen said that she would also like to conduct a safety day at the school. In addition to a possible bike safety class and rodeo, the event could potentially feature various law enforcement agencies and other health and safety-related groups who are willing to conduct presentations or host informational booths with chotchkies, for example.

Because of the number of bikes that become the property of the police department over the course of a year, Callen said that she would also like to see something positive happen with them.

St. Johnsville residents Gary Warn and Charlie Weaver said that someone in the community might volunteer to repair and/or paint one of the bikes for a giveaway to a deserving child. The group would partner with the school in order to determine who that might be.

In order to fund such initiatives, the group needs to engage in fundraising activities. It was suggested that a good time to undertake a bake sale or other such event would be the May Spring Fest celebration. Members are asked to bring possible money-raising ideas to the group’s March 11 meeting.

In other matters, Callen said she would also like to see the group become involved with something akin to a neighborhood watch program, as residents have expressed concerns about criminal mischief incidents.

She said, “I just think that if we had people on their walks or who are out and about to be our eyes and ears, maybe it will help alleviate this.”

Anyone seeing any suspicious behavior at any time is asked to call the department at 568-2140. If an officer is not in the station, the call rolls over to the Montgomery County 911 Dispatch Office and a message will be delivered, it was noted.

A longer-term goal that she’d like to implement in partnership with the school is a volunteer youth court program. In such a system, offending youths committing low-level offenses would go before their peers for adjudication. Among the sentences that could be meted out include community service, which Callen favors.

Before any such program is put in place, however, Callen said she would like to look at other youth court programs to identify problems and safeguards against retribution, for example.

The March 11 meeting starts at 6 p.m.