Though the first instinct of a driver may not be to smile and get excited when he or she is pulled over by a police officer, this week was the exception in several cases in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas.
There, some occurrences of being pulled over weren’t to hand out a ticket or a warning, but were instead to hand out $10 gift cards. A North Texas police department has been doing this all week in order to reward drivers who have been showing safe driving habits.
Police officers have been watching certain safety zones such as pick-up and drop-off areas at schools, and have been spotting individuals who have taken important safety precautions and have performed them properly, such as correctly securing a child into a car seat, obeying the speed limits in the area, and keeping off the mobile phones.
According to Gary McHone, the assistant police chief at Prosper, “There’s such a high concentration of drivers at pick-up and drop-off times that we can safely approach those vehicles.”
McHone also explained that the funding for these gift cards came from the money that was raised from community events held by the department, and that was placed into a contribution fund.
The hope is that this will be a fun and positive way to encourage people to use their safe driving skills and to find out how to practice safe driving techniques more accurately. Equally, it should be hoped that the recipients don’t sweat too many bullets before they find out that they are being rewarded.
