Police officers and personnel work tirelessly to serve our communities. Everyday police professionals across Ontario go above and beyond their duties, giving their time and resources to make a real difference in the lives of Ontarians, their fellow officers, and other police personnel. Most do so without any thought of personal recognition or reward.
The OACP, in partnership with OnStar Canada, is proud to announce a new program that is designed to recognize those often-unsung heroes in our Ontario police services for the work they do and to showcase the excellence in policing that goes beyond the individual or team’s duties. The Heroes Beyond the Badge program will showcase our law enforcement professionals and will tell the often untold stories beyond the badge.
The Purpose of Heroes Beyond the Badge:
- To recognize an individual or team in a police service whose contribution to policing excellence deserves to be known and appreciated.
- To recognize the things beyond “operational” duties that our police officers and personnel do to support their colleagues and their communities, including random acts that make the lives of our police professionals and members of the community better.
- To showcase policing excellence in a positive light.
Defining Excellence:
- The individual/team has demonstrated the highest standard of professionalism, commitment, integrity, and accountability in their work/role.
- The individual/team has gone above and beyond the expectations of their role.
- The individual/team has positively and meaningfully impacted their colleagues, community and/or policing in Ontario via a program, innovative services, effective administration or through volunteerism.
How Heroes Beyond the Badge Works:
- Police personnel in an Ontario police service are invited to nominate an individual or team within their organization (or another police service). We’re not asking you to fill out any nomination form or meet a specific criteria beyond the three “excellence” points noted above. Simply email Pat Kealey at pkealey@oacp.cawith the name or the individual/team you believe deserves to be recognized, providing a short description about them, their work/project, etc.
- Once you have nominated an individual or team for consideration, the nomination will go into a “pool” of nominees for consideration every month. Once you have submitted a nomination (multiple nominations are welcome), you do not have to “re-nominate” the individual or team. Your service will be notified if your nomination(s) are chosen.
- Each month, the OACP and OnStar will choose an individual or team that will be recognized in a special location on the OnStar website, which the public will be able to access directly or through the OACP website.
- The individual or team will also be featured through the social media channels of the OACP and OnStar. The hashtag #BeSafeOutThere will be used on all social media postings. We encourage police services to promote the personnel who is being honoured through their social media channels, their local media, etc.
- The individual or team will be recognized with a personalized certificate of achievement.
We are grateful that OnStar Canada, a subsidiary of General Motors that provides subscription-based communications, in-vehicle security, emergency services, hands-free calling, turn-by-turn navigation, and remote diagnostics systems, is committed to recognizing our police personnel through the Beyond the Badge program.