Newmarket youth will be police chief for a day

for a day

York Regional Police has announced that Grade 5 student Jared McNabb, from Saint Paul Catholic School in Newmarket, is the winner of the annual Chief-for-a-Day contest after delivering his winning essay before a panel of judges last month.

As part of his duties April 19, he will don his speciallymade uniform, give Police Chief Armand LaBarge a day off and take over the helm of the police. He will be responsible for the management of 1,260 sworn officers and 428 civilians - a huge task for someone who is only 10 years old!

He will be sworn in at 9:30 a.m. at Police Headquarters in Newmarket.

After being sworn in, he will visit the Community Safety Village and watch as the canine bureau performs a demonstration by four-legged officers. He'll then be off to dine with a member of the Executive Command Team in Aurora. After lunch, Jared will have a tour of the various specialized units, including air support, canine, traffic and emergency response, and finally end his fun-filled day at around 3:30 p.m.

The Chief-for-a-Day contest is sponsored by the York Regional Police Appreciation Dinner Committee and this year 81 schools in the York Catholic District School Board participated. Students were asked to prepare an essay and five finalists were chosen. All of the participants were excellent, but Jared stood apart from the rest as he projected his voice and spoke with tremendous confidence about how police can assist young people to make good choices.

Jared will present his speech again in front of 1,000 people at the 15th annual Police Appreciation Dinner, which will be held April 26. This event is a fund-raising benefit for policing programs in the community. To date, approximately $2 million dollars has been raised for such worthwhile police projects such as the purchase of police service dogs, the mobile police station, the York Regional Police bus and Crime Stoppers programs.

"Jared's enthusiasm and confidence will assist him in his duties as Chief for a Day as he takes the lead in policing one of the fastest-growing and safest communities in Canada," said La Barge. "It is wonderful to see today's youth so involved in their communities and so knowledgeable about the important issues facing society and that bodes well for the future of York Region and indeed our country."