Sean Sportun’s leadership vision is simple: make Circle K stores less attractive to the criminal element through community engagement.

 After graduating from Seneca College’s Law Enforcement program with honors, Sportun focused his career path in the private security sector, specializing in crime prevention, which has allowed him to further develop his understanding of the effectiveness that community outreach can have.

Through the philosophy of Crime Prevention Through Community Engagement, Sportun has demonstrated his continued commitment to the overall safety of employees and the community.

“I am proud of implementing the Crime Prevention Through Community Engagement philosophy model into our corporate culture within the Central Canada Business Unit,” he shares. “Developing and deploying programs such as Positive Ticketing, StreetART, Clear Zone and our law enforcement hockey cards has been extremely effective for us at Circle K, not only in the significant reduction of crime at our stores, but in the successful partnerships we have built within the communities where stores are located. Teamwork and building partnerships are essential in making a difference to accomplish greater results in the prevention of crime for a safer workplace and safer community.”

The work led to recognition from Harvard University. “In November 2017 two Harvard Business Reviews were released on what our team has done. This was not only an outstanding accomplishment for our team, but in my opinion, for the security industry as a whole to be featured in a Harvard Business Review,” he says.

A strong believer in sharing best practices, Sportun authors quarterly articles and has been a regular guest lecturer for several provincial, national and international associations on crime prevention subjects, from CPTED techniques to robbery prevention and employee safety and protecting whistleblowers in the workplace. He is best known for his workshops on using social media as an effective crime prevention tool.

He believes that each person has a social responsibility to give back to their community. He is the chair of the Toronto Crime Stoppers Board of Directors, working on awareness programs like Cash for Guns, Contraband Tobacco, Student Crime Stoppers, Payment Card Fraud, Retail Crime Stoppers and Fuel Theft.

His career advice is to “Always challenge yourself, constantly work towards being the best version of yourself and never fear reinventing the wheel when it comes to best practices to improve the industry. Most importantly, as security professionals, we must remember that developing strategic partnerships that work diligently towards a community-based shared responsibility can help prevent crime and strengthen community relationships inside and outside of our corporate environment.”