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Officers at the Montreal Police Department's Station 33 in Park Extension played a key role recently in creating a new comic strip designed to educate and raise awareness among children about the various ways to prevent crime, especially in multicultural neighbourhoods. Poli and Urban's Adventures, which is initially being launched in the police department's North Region, was developed as a tool to help eliminate a language barrier which sometimes hinders communication between the police and citizens who speak neither French nor English.
No words
Poli and Urban's Adventures is a comic strip without words, illustrating realistic situations where a character is either a victim or witness to a crime, and to which a prevention tip is given. The concept is simple: three images without text, illustrating a situation, what to do, and how to react. It is a straightforward way to give out prevention information no matter what language the reader speaks. Since the target readers are first and foremost new immigrants, the stories especially emphasize situations that could be new to them.
The strips feature two characters: Poli and Urban. Urban is a raccoon who has just arrived in Montreal and doesn't know how to prevent crime nor what to do when he is the victim of one. Poli is a squirrel who has been in Montreal for a long time and who helps Urban by giving him prevention tips. With 11 "adventures" ready to be circulated, the strip will be appearing over the coming year in newspapers monthly. Copies are also being circulated to schools, community groups, CLSCs and children's daycare centres (CPEs).
A local creation
"It's a project that was created by an officer here," says Commander André-Guy Lamothe, the head of Station 33 on Park Avenue, adding that Poli and Urban could eventually be used as a campaign everywhere on the Montreal Police Department's territory. The idea for Poli and Urban was dreamt up by Sergeant Daniel Théoret, a member of the Station 33 staff. "This was a police officer who had the idea, and worked with some professional artists to create the design," says Lamothe.
"The idea for the squirrel and the raccoon came from him. He's worked here at the station for many years. An artist came up with the final design for the graphics and the comic strips. It's a new idea that was developed because of the problematic that we have here, of how to try to reach the community at large and the young people, considering the new reality of Montreal and considering the reality of this sector. A lot of people don't speak English or French. There's a lot of new immigrants coming here. So he came up with the idea of a comic strip without words."
Getting youngsters' attention
Lamothe sees Poli and Urban as a particularly appropriate medium for gaining the attention of youngsters, while also getting the message across to the older generation. "We know that comic strips attract young children," he says. "At a very young age they can right away understand what it means and what to do. The only words that you might see in the comic strip are things like 'call 9-1-1' or other very specific messages. But it's also very understandable for old people, and for young people who don't speak French or English." Poli and Urban's Adventures was in development for the past two years.
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