News release - CACP Lifetime Achievement Award for Traffic Safety 2022

08/10/22 - 08/10/27

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 10, 2022

Superintendent Scott Baptist receives the 2022 CACP Lifetime Achievement Award for Traffic Safety

QUÉBEC, QUÉBEC – The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (CACP) is proud to announce the winner of an award recognizing a member of the policing community that has made significant, outstanding contributions to road safety throughout their career through education, enforcement, training and/or community-based programs.

This year’s CACP Road Safety Lifetime Achievement Award, sponsored by Accident Support Services International Ltd., was presented to Superintendent Scott Baptist of the Toronto Police Service.

He is a Member of the Order of Merit of the Police Forces, a passionate road safety advocate, and a staunch supporter of vulnerable road users. He is a senior officer who truly understands the challenges that front-line traffic officers face because he has been a traffic officer in almost every rank. He also personally knows the challenges involved in recovering from a collision and advocates for all victims and their families through partners at Victim Services Toronto.

Superintendent Baptist has provided insight, leadership and volunteered his time to hundreds of committees, initiatives, and community groups over the course of his 35-year career.

As a Police Constable, he worked as a motorcycle officer, highway patrol officer, traffic enforcement officer, an intoxilyzer technician, and collision investigator. He also served as a collision reconstructionist and the lead investigator of fatal and life-threatening collisions along with criminal-driving investigations.

As a sergeant, he led a unit responsible for teaching police officers how to operate police vehicles safely to ensure they arrive at calls-for-service in a safe and timely manner.

As a staff-sergeant, he was responsible for a front-line platoon at Traffic Services (TSV), overseeing the City’s response to fatal and life-threatening collisions.

As the Section Head, Traffic Support section, he led the Traffic Policing Review Project for the Service in 2008 titled The Road Ahead, which informed the Service’s traffic policing strategies for the next 10 years.

Superintendent Scott Baptist has been the District Commander of Traffic Operations, consisting of Traffic Services and Parking Services, since 2017. As such, he is responsible for leading over 700 police officers and civilian staff. To improve efficiencies in service, he restructured the deployment model placing officers where they were needed the most, by adopting satellite locations to reduce the response times for calls-for-service. He is also responsible for the creation of a centralized parking enforcement unit which minimized the time it took for parking enforcement officers to get to their patrol locations, thereby improving traffic flow in the downtown core. He is a constant advocate for the Vision Zero Enforcement Team (VZET), an experienced team of traffic officers partnering with the City of Toronto in the shared strategy dedicated to enforcement and reducing collision volumes. Finally, he lobbied the Ontario provincial government to change the definition of a ‘motor vehicle collision’ to include doorings – a situation where a cyclist crashes into an open door – a change which came into effect on January 1, 2022.

“Superintendent Scott Baptist’s dedication, passion and influence on road safety excellence has led to significant, positive changes in Toronto and across Ontario. Collisions continue to be a leading cause of death and injury in Canada thereby emphasizing the importance and the impact of our road safety officers and leaders,” stated Chief Superintendent Rohan Thompson, Co-chair of the CACP’s Traffic Safety Committee.

“Superintendent Scott Baptist has helped enhance the scope and process of collision investigations in various ways throughout his career. Efficiency, safety and commitment are goals our company shares with this year’s award recipient.” added Mr. Steve Sanderson, President of Accident Support Services International Ltd.

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For further information or to arrange a media interview, please contact:

Natalie Wright
Communications Advisor
communications@cacp.ca 
613.838.8807