Every weekday, Cst. Sean Shapiro slips on his headphones, flips on his microphone and goes live on his show, Ask a Traffic Cop, broadcasting from his studio inside Toronto’s traffic unit headquarters. Shapiro answers questions about highway safety, speeding, cycling, U-turns and what qualifies as distracted driving—and then posts clips on his TikTok page, where he’s amassed nearly 600,000 followers.
It all started after the 22-year veteran officer was hurt on duty. Instead of giving out tickets, he started giving out advice. It helps that he has the perfect voice for radio; in fact, he recently won third place in an international radio contest out of the United Kingdom.
He credits a lot of his recent success to his Jewish identity, including how his mother influenced his profession and how his upbringing instilled in him a strong sense of morality. The CJN Daily visited the “TikTok Traffic Cop” at his studio to learn the road he took to getting where he is.
What we talked about:
- Watch his videos on TikTok or his full-length videos on YouTube
Credits
The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Zachary Kauffman is the producer. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Dov Beck-Levine. Our title sponsor is Metropia. We’re a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, please watch this video.
