Guelph Police Honour Junior Citizens With Awards, Recognition

Outstanding Deeds Make For Better Communities

by Guelphg Now! LOcal news
Mar 26, 2012

From left to right: Jack McKinnon, Jacob Hartung, Madison Soegtrop, Cst. Powell, Cst. Murphy and Cst. Gamsby.

GUELPH JUNIOR CITIZEN AWARDS

The Junior Citizen Award is a Guelph Police initiative and the recipients are nominated by a member of the police service. The award is given to a citizen of Guelph, 16 years of age or under who has been involved in a police related incident. The Junior Citizen Award is awarded annually to provide recognition to young citizens of Guelph who contribute to the community by assisting the Guelph Police Service in keeping our city a safe place to live, work and play. This is the sixth annual presentation of the award.

In the spring of 2010, a local high school student, Madison Soegtrop was downtown Guelph when she witnessed two people involved in drug activity and she called the police.

Madison relayed the information to the police over the phone and then in person when they arrived downtown. After receiving the information, the Guelph Police investigated and a male was charged with Possession of a Controlled Substance under 30g and Possession for the Purpose of Trafficking a Controlled Substance.

Madison, 15 years old at the time, was just in the area when she witnessed these individuals handling a substance she believed to be marijuana. She had no connection to these individuals or the situation. Rather than ignoring what she saw, she chose to call the police to provide a description of the incident and the suspects. Madison did exactly what she needed to do to assist the police. She performed her duty as a citizen of Guelph and her involvement assisted the police in making an arrest.

On June 20th, 2011, two local high school students, Jacob Hartung and Jack McKinnon attended a local variety store near their school. While they were at the store, two other youths of a similar age, committed a theft and then left the store. Jacob and Jack became aware of the theft and approached the boys outside the store. The store clerk called the police.

Jacob and Jack spoke to the boys, who were unknown and unrelated to them, about the theft. They convinced the youths to turn over the stolen products to them so they could return the items to the store. When the police arrived to investigate, the two youths, along with Jacob and Jack, were waiting to speak with police.

Jacob and Jack were only 15 and 14 years old at the time of this incident. They had no friendship or involvement with the two boys who chose to steal items from the store. Despite these factors, Jacob and Jack made an effort to intervene and convinced the boys to do the right thing. Their actions benefitted both the clerk and the boys who committed the theft. Instead of a charge being laid, the boys were formally reprimanded and returned to their parents and the variety store didn’t take a loss on their inventory. Jacob Hartung and Jack McKinnon performed their duty as citizens of Guelph and their actions served the community.

For their actions, they were all commended and awarded the Junior Citizen Award by the Guelph Police Service in a ceremony held at the police station on March 21st, 2012.