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The Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police is the voice of Ontario’s Police Leaders.
Members of the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police serve their communities as senior police leaders in municipal, regional, provincial, national, and First Nations police services across Ontario.
Media Release
Toronto Police Service 2022 Vision Zero Enforcement Team
Awarded the 2023 OACP Traffic Safety Excellence Award
For Immediate Release: June 13, 2023
(Kingston, ON) – The Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police (OACP) is pleased to award the 2023 OACP Traffic Safety Excellence Award to Toronto Police Service - 2022 Vision Zero Enforcement Team.
This award is presented to an individual or police organization that creates, develops, and implements Ontario’s highly successful traffic safety program.
To address the growing demands from communities throughout the City of Toronto to increase road safety and support the Vision Zero Road Safety Plan adopted by the city, TPS created the Vision Zero Enforcement Team (VZET) on October 19, 2020.
The team, consisting of 16 Constables and two Sergeants, focuses on intercepting driving behaviours responsible for the most serious types of collisions across the city. As a data-driven team, they use statistical data to create a deployment schedule that covers the many communities within Toronto, focusing on areas with increased traffic issues.
The VZET group believes that its strength is found in working together as a team and focusing on complex enforcement of the BIG four offences: speeding, distracted, aggressive, and impaired driving. VZET engages in multifaceted investigations targeting aggressive drivers who have a blatant disregard for rules and road safety.
In addition to their regular enforcement, VZET is involved with other provincial, municipal, and TPS projects targeting community and complaint-driven traffic issues. Members of this team annually represent the service at street racing police service enforcement projects such as Project Erase and Project Buccaneer.
The VZET team have generated a substantial amount of data that explains the scope of traffic enforcement performed across Toronto. The following statistical breakdown highlights the efforts of the 2022 team:
- Since inception, VZET has issued 93,137 tickets.
- In 2022, VZET issued 40,987 tickets, accounting for 22% of all Highway Traffic Act tickets issued service-wide.
- More than 1 in 5 tickets issued by TPS was issued by a VZET officer.
- A total of 26,227 speeding charges have been issued.
- There were 524 Stunt driving charges issued in 2022, resulting in 7,336 days of immediate vehicle impoundments and 15,720 days of driving licence suspensions.
- A total of 3,896 distracted driving related charges were also issued, accounting for 39% of all distracted tickets issued.
The team is also active on social media posting to the various TPS Traffic Services social media platforms. Social media connects communities, other TPS members and the media to the teams' efforts and messaging about the different areas of road safety being monitored.
This annual award is made possible by the generous support from the
Canadian Automobile Association South Central Ontario.
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#OACP2023
#ConnectLeadInspire
Media Contact:
José Luís (Joe) Couto
Director of Government Relations & Communications
C. (416) 919-9798
E. jcouto@oacp.ca
Twitter: @OACPOfficial
Instagram: @OACPOfficial
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