Features Editor’s Commentary
Celebrating Canadian police officers

Police officers have an incredibly difficult job to perform every day. Though law enforcement is a rewarding career path, there are often negative effects that the profession can have on a person.

At Blue Line, we want to celebrate you as officers, and this is why we created three annual awards programs. You’ve chosen a life of serving and protecting others and we thank you. With that, I am happy to bring you this year’s awards edition.

Canada’s Best Dressed Police Vehicle Awards celebrate an aspect of policing that officers must rely on every day. It is broken down into different categories that focus on frontline patrol vehicles, community relations vehicles, law enforcement and special service vehicles. The awards aim to showcase innovative, sustainable and effective designs. A team of judges looks at criteria such as clear identification, graphic designs that enhance visibility, elements that show the directionality of travel and effective integration of equipment and controls. In 2024, the awards program was sponsored by Setina.

Timmins Police Service drove home in first place for our frontline patrol vehicle category with their 2021 Dodge Durango, with Police Essipit’s Ford F150 Police Responder coming in second place and Sarnia Police Service’s 2022 Chevy Tahoe coming in third. All three vehicles showcased strong community identities and pride in their services. Gesgapegiag Police Department, a First Nations Police Service from Quebec, took home first place in the community relations category, followed by Peel Regional Police in second. The full story can be found on page 10.

You’ve chosen a life of serving and protecting others and we thank you.

Our second award focuses on those who have spent their whole career in law enforcement, continuously making a difference in the communities they have served. The Lifetime in Law Enforcement Achievement Award is presented to an individual who has shown exceptional leadership, dedication and passion toward their work in law enforcement for more than 15 years. This year’s award was given to Cst. Christopher Nguyen of the Taber Police Service in Alberta. You can read the conversation I had with him on page 18.

Our final award of the year is dedicated to the rookies of Canadian law enforcement. The Rookie of the Year award recognizes and encourages a standard of excellence that exemplifies leadership as an activity, not a position, and pride in service to the public. Its goal is to highlight promising new officers who are effectively paving the way for the policing of today and tomorrow, and creating positive waves among their peers, agencies, communities and beyond. This year’s Rookie of the Year is Cst. Veronica Fast of the Hamilton Police Service in Ontario. You can read about her time as a rookie so far on page 14.

As always, please reach out to me at any time if you believe that there is a topic that you think we should be talking about, a new program that your police service has started, or an officer you think should be highlighted. I can be reached at bschroeder@annexbusinessmedia.com.

Until next time, happy reading and be well.