“At first everybody looks like why is the officer coming towards me? What am I doing?”

Chad Miller says that’s a natural reaction towards police, “We’re always dealing with bad people. Our job is to arrest and take care of the bad people.” However, it is a reaction that he and his fellow officers at the Johnstown Police Department are working to change.



“I was scared at first I thought they were going to yell at me or something,” says Gary Stoykovich.



The police department is handing out tickets for good behavior, and anyone can get one! Stoykovich got one after two officers stopped him and thanked him for his positive videos that he makes about Johnstown, “It was nice for a change to see something different, a change of heart. There are actually good people out there. There are actually cops out there who are just normal people, who underneath that badge and everything they’re just normal, and it was just really cool to see them take the time.”



The tickets are for free self-serve drinks from Sheetz.



“We have tremendous respect for our law enforcement folks in all of our communities,” Sheetz district manager Linda Pacovsky tells WTAJ. “When we were approached with the ability to give back to our community in a positive way we thought this was something great that we really needed to be involved in.”



Johnstown police say they borrowed this idea from other departments. They hope it breaks down the barriers between police and the community, showing that they are not focused only on bad things and that the community can trust them .

“We just thought it was great for them to make positive connections,” Pacovsky says.



“If everybody starts one at a time doing good things then we can change the city,” Miller adds.

So far they have handed out 50 tickets.