Your friendly neighbourhood police officer in North Vancouver now may be riding in a friendlier police vehicle thanks to some local elementary school students.
North Vancouver RCMP recently announced the winners of its name a police car contest held by the RCMP’s Community Policing Youth Support Team.
In November 2023, elementary school students in North Vancouver (grades 4 through 7) were invited to participate in a contest to help name three police vehicles used by Youth Support Team officers.
YST received an overwhelming response with hundreds of creative submissions from enthusiastic students. After careful consideration, a shortlist of popular names was compiled and distributed to the civilian staff at the North Vancouver detachment for voting.
The following students had the most voted names and were printed and displayed on a police car:
- Ronan from Holy Trinity Elementary with the winning entry of “Blue Lightning”
- Julien from Holy Trinity Elementary with the winning entry of “Called For Duty”
- Audrey from Cleveland Elementary with the winning entry of “Flash”
The students who submitted the winning names met the police officers driving the vehicles, joined them for a ride in the cruiser and had their picture taken. They also received a certificate and a small gift from the RCMP Community Policing Youth Support Team.
“This was a very exciting process for us, and we hope the students had as much fun as we did,” said police spokesman Const. Mansoor Sahak. “Our Youth Support Team is constantly exploring ways to connect and engage with North Shore youth, and this naming contest was a particularly gratifying example of that. Seeing the kids’ reaction to having their submitted names displayed on the back of cars they’ll see out in the community was incredibly rewarding.”
In 1873, the North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) were created to patrol parts of Canada, including today’s Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, the Northwest, Yukon, and Nunavut Territories. Patrols were then conducted on horses (that obviously were named), but as other motorized modes of transportation took over, the practice of naming police transports fell away, continuing only with specialized police dogs and horses.
Now, thanks to some creative students, some North Van RCMP horsepower is named once again.
Fatemeh Falah is an intern reporter with the North Shore News. She can be contacted at [email protected].
