Dwaine Nichol, who has been in the role with the City of Toronto for the past 10 years, was selected for the honour based on several large initiatives he completed in the last year including his work to obtain $12 million in funding for upgrades to security systems at Toronto’s Union Station: a city-wide security plan and a city-wide security video surveillance policy that brought all 1,000+ cameras used in the city under the Corporate Security Unit.

Nichol’s professional responsibilities take in the City of Toronto’s 1,500 facilities and 45,000 employees.

Nichol was nominated for the award, which is sponsored by Anixter Canada, by Jason Smiley, Supervisor, Buildings Security, North District City of Toronto.

After consideration by the Canadian Security editorial advisory board, Nichol was chosen as the winner, with Gord Helm, Manager, Port Security & Marine Operations for the Halifax Port Authority chosen as the first runner up.

“(Nichol) promotes a vision of providing a complete range of security services in a professional, cost-effective manner with specific reference to standards, best practices and benchmarking,” Smiley indicated in his nomination.

In assessing the nominations, several members of the editorial advisory board members said they chose Nichol not only for the projects he has completed, but also for fostering development of his 150 staff members and their skills.

“I’m a strong advocate of certification and vision and Dwaine seems to be showing that with his staffing and the number of certified people he has on his staff,” said editorial advisory board member Pat Bishop, general manager, Profile Group of Companies.

Tyson Johnson, manager, physical security with TD Bank Financial Group, cited Nichol for his breadth of responsibility and the way he has grown the security department at the City of Toronto.

“Dwaine stands apart ”“ he has a holistic program that is expansive in its mandate and responsibilities and seems to have built up the program and integrated with many different functions. For me, the education of his staff was a huge factor. The other thing I liked about the submission is that it was measurable, which I thought was missing on other submissions,” said Johnson.

The nomination outlined how Nichol had added a requirement for supervisory security staff and security audit staff, in their annual performance planners, to earn security certifications.

Since he made that a policy, seven staff have earned their Certified Protection Professional (CPP) certification, four have earned their Physical Security Professional (PSP), two have Certified Security Project Manager (CSPM) and 20 have their Certified Protection Officer (CPO) or higher. All 14 control centre operators have earned their CSO or CSOI (Central Station Operator).