| JUVENILE DIVERSION |

The Montpelier Police Department offers a juvenile diversion program for youth offenders of minor crimes. Sometimes children make mistakes and sometimes those mistakes cause a child to be criminally charged. In an effort to establish youth rehabilitation our department created the diversion program to work with juvenile offenders of minor crimes. In lieu of criminally charging a youth for a minor criminal offense, offenders participate in a community service program right here in Montpelier. Overseen by the police department, offenders work off hours of service instead of being criminally charged. This allows the youth to participate in a community activity, return service to the community where they offended, and reduces fines and/or jail time. The program was created to decrease the burden of punishment on the parent and place it directly on the person who committed the offense.

The program requires the offender to serve a designated amount of hours of community service, as set by the program coordinator. They do things like wash cars, sweep parking lots, pick up litter, shovel snow, or paint over graffiti. The offender must write an apology letter to the person (organization) they have offended, and endure hands-on counseling from program monitors. The participation in this program is voluntary based upon the agreement of the police department, offender's parent(s), and the offender. If successful completion of the program occurs then the child is NOT criminally charged. If the offender does NOT complete the program then the offender is charged criminally through our juvenile court system.

Chief Dan McGee oversees all operations of the juvenile diversion program. If you have any questions please call Chief McGee please at 419-485-3121.