Back to SearchMedia Release
Staff Sergeant Justin Vandenbrink, Peel Regional Police, Awarded the 2026 OACP Award of Excellence in Community Safety, Wellness, and Crime Prevention
For Immediate Release: June 4, 2026
(Niagara, ON) – The Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police (OACP) is pleased to announce that Staff Sergeant Justin Vandenbrink, Peel Regional Police (PRP), has been awarded the 2026 OACP Award of Excellence in Community Safety, Wellness, and Crime Prevention.
This award is presented in recognition of the accomplishments of an officer and their community partners working together to improve community safety and well-being.
Dementia affects more than 200,000 Ontarians, and research shows that six in ten people with dementia will wander at least once. For the individual, it can be life-threatening, and for families, it is one of the most frightening experiences imaginable. For police, it represents a distinct challenge; a single occurrence can require hundreds of officer hours and significant resources and costs.
PRP’s Project Lantern was designed with the clear objective to reduce the frequency of missing person incidents, improve resolution times, improve quality of life for enrolled families, and decrease reliance on emergency services.
The need was identified through an analysis of missing person occurrence data and direct frontline experience that showed families were consistently reaching police only after a crisis had already begun. In developing Project Lantern, CSWB officers conducted proactive outreach with at-risk families, providing them with safeguarding information and connecting them to resources. Community partners, who were experts in the field, deliver prevention and ongoing support to clients and their families. Frontline officers leveraged the VPR Dashboard during incidents for immediate access to critical information, photos, de-escalation strategies, caregiver contacts, and mapping tools, that previously had to be gathered in real time under pressure.
Recognizing that police alone cannot address the full scope of the problem, the program was built around two formal community partnerships. The Alzheimer Society of Peel (ASP) serves as the program’s social support backbone, connecting enrolled families with counseling, education, adult day programs, and caregiver resources through a consent-based referral process. Toronto Grace Health Centre (TGH) provides clients with GPS pendants, 24/7 monitoring by healthcare professionals, fall detection, and geofencing alerts, at no cost to the family or police.
The shift from reactive to proactive has produced measurable results. Enrolled clients have experienced a 49% reduction in missing person incidents, and when incidents do occur, case resolution times have improved by 57%. More than 400 individuals are actively enrolled in Project Lantern, and families report an 86% positive quality of life impact since joining the program.
Project Lantern demonstrates what Ontario’s Mobilization and Engagement Model looks like in practice. The program moved deliberately along the model’s continuum, from Community Mobilization, where police identified the problem and leveraged partnerships, through Community Engagement, where ASP and TGH delivered early intervention and social support, toward Community Safety, where 88% of GPS alerts are now resolved without police involvement. The entire program operates at no additional cost to the police service, is embedded in an operational directive, and is supported by its community partners.
This annual award is made possible by the generous support from
Accident Support Services International Ltd.
-30-
#OACP2026
#LegacyInnovationService
For more information, contact:
Dr. José Luís (Joe) Couto
Director of Strategic Initiatives, Research, and Corporate Communications
C. (416) 919-9798
E. media@oacp.ca
Facebook:
http://facebook.com/OACPOfficial
Instagram: @OACPOfficial
YouTube:
http://youtube.com/OACPOfficial
#OACP2026
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 the senior police leaders in municipal, regional, provincial, national, and Indigenous police services across Ontario
Subscribe