Parking Enforcement Officer Safety Campaign wins International Award

Since the launch of the joint Toronto Police Service (TPS) and Toronto Police Association (TPA) Parking Enforcement Officer Safety Campaign in July 2024, there has been a significant decrease in Parking Enforcement Officers (PEO) assaults.

After the campaign was launched, assaults dropped 56 percent to 10 in the last half of 2024, averaging 1.82 a month. The assault rate per ticket also dropped by 43.2 percent after the summer 2024 news conference. Before the campaign, 27 assaults occurred over 1,190,678 parking tickets issued.

The Parking Enforcement Officer Safety Campaign was recognized at this year’s International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) World Conference in British Columbia.

Shannon Cartier, TPS’s Senior Communications Advisor, was the recipient of a Gold Quill Award of Merit for the campaign.

Being named a Gold Quill winner places Cartier among the top communication professionals in the world.

“Winning a Gold Quill is an honour and career highlight,” she said. “This achievement is possible because of my talented and dedicated colleagues in the Corporate Communications Unit, many of whom played an essential role in the success of this campaign, as well as the members in the Parking Enforcement Unit, and the support of the TPA. I am very proud of this campaign because it positively impacted the safety and wellbeing of our colleagues and that’s the actual reward to me.”

According to the IABC website, the Gold Quill Award is more than recognition.

“It is about credibility, growth and the global validation of expertise,” it added. “It reflects a deep understanding of communication strategy, measurable outcomes and ethical practice. As a winner, Shannon is not just at the top of her game. She is helping define the standard for the profession.”

The campaign was entered in Division 1: Communication Management - Category 5: Safety Communication.

“This is a very good campaign,” the evaluators noted. “Planning was very focused and well-structured

In 2021, there were assaults on six PEOs. The number increased to 15 the following year and, in 2023, there were 46 members assaulted. 

In most cases, they were assailed while serving a parking ticket.

Parking Enforcement West/Central Operational Supervisor George Johnstone said the campaign has been effective.

“Tasked with keeping city streets safe and traffic flow moving, our officers face negative interactions with motorists daily while in the performance of their duties,” he pointed out. “This campaign has had an enormous impact not only the decrease in assaults on them, but on their well-being. Their duties are physically and mentally challenging and added physical assaults and verbal threats can compound an already demanding situation. Keeping this very important topic at the forefront of the public’s attention has shown some early benefits in the reduction of these situations of which we are appreciative.”

To launch the public awareness campaign, the TPS and the TPA jointly hosted a news conference and four parking enforcement officers shared their on-duty assault experiences with media afterwards.

After the conference, several social media posts were published and a four-week joint social media campaign focused on public education was launched.

In addition, six unique posts with a mix of images, animated graphics and video were created along with photographs and video of PEOs on the job to get the right look and feel, ensuring Toronto streets and landmarks were well presented.

Besides issuing parking tickets, PEOs last year helped recover more than 1,100 stolen vehicles, facilitated more than 21,000 vehicles towed, assisted officers with 16 arrests and provided support to 246 special events.

They also provide operational support through language interpretation, emergency support, crime management and prevention as well as assisting with corporate and local community-policing initiatives.

In addition, they regulate parking through the application of by-laws, respond to the public and private parking concerns of the community, support special events and demonstrations by ensuring the safe and unobstructed movement of vehicular and pedestrian traffic and assist with the safe and orderly flow of traffic.