Congratulations D/Sgt. Williamson

DRPS would like to congratulate Detective Sergeant Rob Williamson on receiving the 2023 OACP Excellence in Information Technology Services Award. Your hard work on the Provincial Offenders Dashboard has led to increased officer and community safety beyond the boundaries of Durham Region, and we thank you.

This award was presented in recognition of the accomplishments of police agencies who have used/leveraged technology in the development and introduction of a significant change that proved to be “a game-changer” for the organization and/or the policing community.

Recognizing that criminals use the jurisdictional geographic barriers to their advantage, a plan was established to create a real-time information sharing platform. The goal was to create a technological foundation and roadmap available for use by all law enforcement to break down geographic barriers, to share information inter-agency in real time, to increase public and officer safety, and to provide officers with location-based information while on patrol or involved in active investigations.

Through the shared Provincial Offenders Dashboard, Toronto Police Service and Durham Regional Police Service were able to share and display each other’s bail offender information on internal dashboards. To date, there are approximately 1,600 firearm bail offenders displayed on the dashboard released on bail throughout Ontario and across Canada.

This innovative and the first of its kind in Canada approach breaks down geographic barriers and provides frontline officers access to real time situational awareness.

Full media release on the OACP award can be found here.