Investing in Transit Safety and Security

Apr 21

Public transit is vital for many residents to get around Edmonton. In fact, there were 61.6 million trips by bus or LRT last year, which is 15% higher than 2023, and 12% higher than 2019. These are figures worth celebrating!

Yet, I’ve heard from many Edmontonians who still don’t feel safe taking public transit, and that’s something the City is continually working to address. On April 9, Council approved $5 million to place 30 more Transit Peace Officers at transit stations throughout Edmonton, bringing the total to 126 officers citywide. Until now, security commissionaires have been active at 19 of Edmonton’s 43 transit stations. But rather than divide funds between peace officers and commissionaires, who don’t have enforcement authority, Council voted to fund more officers, for maximum impact.

This re-allocation provides more coverage across the transit system, in both peak and off-peak hours, allowing peace officers to be more proactive. Peace officers are trained to follow the 4E model: engage, educate, encourage, and enforce. When encountering an issue, the expectation is that a peace officer attempts to resolve the situation through conversation, referrals, and warnings before ticketing.

Prior to this decision, Council moved forward a number of investments under the Enhanced Transit Safety Plan, including:

Expanding Community Outreach Transit Teams (COTT), a partnership between the City and Bent Arrow Traditional Healing Society, which connects individuals in need to culturally appropriate social supports

Initiating eight safety-focused projects, such as enhanced cleaning, improved Transit Watch safety signage, 40 more security cameras, improvements to more than 500 transit centre doors, just to name a few

The good news is that all this work is starting to move the needle in the right direction. For example, Edmonton Police Service reported a 6% reduction in average crime severity at our transit centres last year.

We know there are also tools beyond enforcement to make our transit system safer. Transit stations should be welcoming, clean community spaces, and we can achieve this through enhanced sanitation, transit greeters and navigators, art installations and other activations of the spaces. As transit ridership increases, so does the number of eyes on the system, creating better natural surveillance. Having more riders can help deter disorder and crime, and can also improve perceptions of transit safety. I’ve also made a motion to ensure that service packages will be debated in the fall to further advance transit safety.

Do you use ETS on a regular basis? Let me know how we can continue to improve transit to ensure that you get where you’re going safely and securely.