The link has interactive graphs for ‘Transit-related violent crime rates per 100,000 people in Canada’s cities’
An excerpt:
A number of factors could be contributing to violent crime rates both on and off transit systems, said public transportation consultant David Cooper.
“The environmental circumstances that we’ve seen on transit have changed so much since the pandemic. We’ve had this opioid crisis. We have a mental health crisis. We have an affordability crisis. We’ve seen a difference in what’s occurring in our public spaces — and transit is not immune to this,” he said.
Cooper explained that during his ride-alongs with police, he observed much of the violence is committed by a relatively small number of people who have repeated encounters with officers and are often not homeless.
“An individual who is homeless is not committing crime on the transit system,” he said. “Typically a lot of violence that we’re seeing is very much around individuals who prey on vulnerable individuals.”
In 2023, Cooper wrote a series of recommendations for the Canadian Urban Transit Association, designed to address safety concerns. It includes calls for better housing and mental health support, and funding for more security and enforcement positions.
Just this month, the TTC announced a new safety plan that includes hiring additional staff to be present at stations, improved crisis response training and better security monitoring. The TTC is also implementing a crisis worker program for some portions of the subway system.
Winnipeg launched its own plan in September to address violence on transit, increasing police patrols on transit routes and in facilities.
Calgary has invested $15 million annually into its strategy, which includes dozens of new transit peace officers and connections with social services, while Edmonton is expanding its specialized transit safety police teams.
Do I know that for a fact? Of course not, I haven’t conducted a study in this exact domain in TO. That said poverty is well linked in scientific literature with adverse effrcts on mental health and increased violence. The experiences of my friends, family and me are congruent with that. People creating uncomfortable situations are almost always visibly “not doing well,” occurence has become much more common with the cost of living increases and it’s spatially concentrated in areas with visible poverty. That’s good enough for me to conclude that poverty is the likely cause and that once we jail the current batch, new people would appear. In effect we’ll be shifting the problem from the street to the prison. Which would improve things in the immediate term.