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Certificates of Distinction

Constable Dean Roy
Durham Regional Police Service

Information sharing and partnerships are the building blocks of Constable Dean Roy's philosophy when dealing with youth at risk. As a 13-year veteran of the force, Roy realizes the whole community needs to be involved when it comes to helping youth who have come into conflict with the law. "The youth issue is a community issue," says Roy.

One of the many partnerships Roy created was between students attending Durham College and Institute of Technology's Police Foundations Course and an agency that oversees community service hours. The agency was having a hard time committing the time to higher-risk offenders needing to complete their hours of community service. Roy was instrumental in bringing together principals and vice-principals from various school boards. The group was able to look at youth issues from a municipal viewpoint rather than at a singular school board level.

Another gap that Roy filled involved youth getting to the root causes of their criminal behaviour. He helped to set up a protocol that would ensure that youth with underlying issues are referred to the John Howard Society within seven days for an interview. The organization would then refer the youth and their parents/guardians to one of the 105 agencies from the referral database. The creation of the database came about when Roy realized that many of the community partners were unaware of each other's programs.

Under Roy's direction, the Durham Regional Police created enhanced warning forms as a less formal way of dealing with minor offences. The youth diversion contract requires that the young person agree to follow certain rules and/or complete specified tasks. In a twelve-month period, the Enhanced Warning Program has had 160 participants.

Roy also wanted to ensure that youth under 12 received the help they need in dealing with their behaviour. "Durham Under 12" is a program which allows front line officers the tools they need to help those who come into conflict law while their actions are fresh in their memories.

Contact person:
Constable Dean Roy
(905) 579-1520