I joined the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in 1980 – long before Twitter existed to make an idea of mine viral.

Various Canadian police departments give "positive tickets" to reward people for doing something good. — UberFacts (@UberFacts) February 16, 2013

During my years with the RCMP, I learned there was more to police work than just punishing crime, and I came up with a simple way to do a lot of good: positive tickets.

Like many professional law enforcement officers of that era, I brought a certain mentality to the job. I wanted to hunt down criminals – chase bad guys, kick in doors, get the bust. It was hunter v hunted.

I was assigned to visit schools as a young constable. I asked the kids what they thought of cops. They would say, "Cops are hunters." I thought they meant game hunting, so I told them I didn't hunt animals. "No," they said. "You hide in bushes and jump out. You hunt people – you hunt kids. You take our mommies and daddies away to jail."

It was clear the kids didn't trust police officers. They thought we showed up only if something bad happened or if they were going to get into trouble. The image they had of police officers – of me – was haunting.

I can't escape the realities of my job – I have to hunt down criminals. But could I also work on the other end of the spectrum? Could I build positive relationships strong enough to keep youth out of trouble? Could I serve as a mentor instead of a hunter? Could I learn to trust them? Could they learn to trust me? When I was assigned as superintendent of Richmond, I wanted to build a strong relationship between the youth in our community and my police staff. The first small step was to get all of my people trained on being proactive and taking initiative.

We had to pull out of our reactive mode of waiting for youth to commit a crime before we intervened. We needed more proactive initiative and less reactive intervention – in other words, to prepare instead of repair. Once my officers had the right training and mindset, we needed to decide the best way to build trusting relationships with our teens. We hit on the idea of positive tickets. Imagine cops catching kids for positive behavior. Instead of handing out violations for negative behavior, we would "catch" kids doing good things and reward them with a positive ticket.

This idea totally went against the old paradigm of the reactive, post-incident, corrective policing model. I guess you could say we were still the hunters, but now we were hunting for good behavior. This was a completely new mindset for my officers. Some of them quickly jumped on board. For others, it took awhile.

We partnered with lots of organizations and businesses in the community to provide the positive tickets – coupons for free food, movie tickets or entrance to something fun. The tickets were a great alternative for kids who would otherwise be bored, "hanging" on the streets, and possibly getting into trouble with the law. We gave out tickets for all sorts of good behavior – wearing a helmet while biking or skateboarding, using the crosswalks, skateboarding in designated areas, getting to school on time, speaking respectfully, etc.

We started out small, and then the program began to grow. The community started supporting us more. Organizations donated huge numbers of coupons and passes. But it wasn't about the ticket. People started to realize the potential they had to encourage positive behavior in youth. The program just started to explode. Then even the skeptics got on board.

It's not about how many tickets are redeemed. The ticket is the gateway to the relationship. What's most important is that the ticket is a positive event, and when the youth sees the officer the next time, it will start off on a positive note.

If you reward good behavior, your return on investment will be more good behavior. This is not rocket science; we (especially police officers) simply don't reward and celebrate positive behavior enough.

The Richmond RCMP Detachment, where I worked, was handing out 40,000 positive tickets a year (a 3 to 1 ratio compared to violations). As a result of several youth prevention initiatives, including positive tickets, our youth-related service calls dropped by almost 50%, keeping more than 1,000 youth out of trouble with the law. We have maintained a similar level over the years.

But that's not the rewarding part. The part that makes it worthwhile is pulling into a parking lot full of kids and instead of running away from me, they swarm me. The rewarding part is driving down the street, looking out my window at some kids, and having them wave at me. The real result is seeing a youth who was on the edge of crime now far from it because he or she made a friend with one of my officers through positive tickets. The payoff is that kids don't feel I am hunting them anymore; they see me as a friend.

My idea caught on over Twitter recently, but it works well in the "real world," too. I wish more police departments would try it.

• Mostly excerpted with permission of the author from his book, Breaking With the Law: The Story of Positive Tickets