A proposal to increase the number of transit peace officers by 35% will help keep Edmontonians safer and bring relief to “fatigued, traumatized” officers on the job — but it doesn’t address the root of the problem, said Steve Bradshaw, president of Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 569..A rising homeless population, estimated at more than 3,000, is contributing to misery and threats to safety permeating public transit..A motion during Edmonton City Council’s 2023-26 budget hearings Wednesday was put forward to add 25 more officers to 90 officers currently policing public transit to deal with what has been described as a crime wave and has people fearful to use public transit..“That’s increasing that compliment by about 35%. It’s a great help. We need those peace officers out there. That will fly. It’s going to go,” said Bradshaw..As of December 12, there were 1,447 LRT/transit centre occurrences in 2022. A total of 27.3% involved violence, 7.33% weapons, and 21.22% disorder. Another 15.34% were classified as non-violent and 26.74% are simply deemed “other.” These are occurrences where an exact address of LRT/transit centres was used and don’t include online reports, occurrences on buses, trains or near stations..Public transit is rife with weapons complaints, drug overdoses and bullying. Last May, a 78-year-old woman was pushed from an LRT platform onto the tracks. A woman was also stabbed at a downtown LRT stations. And operators have been attacked..“The report of incidents of assaults on operators is running around 60 this year. It’s a little bit up from last year, about 20%. But last year’s was down from the year before.”.“What is safe varies from hour to hour. Are they safe from an attack by somebody that’s on drugs and is not coherent? When that person walks onto their bus and doesn’t have a fare — no one’s safe from that.”.“It’s worse on the LRT than it is on the buses, but it can be bad on the buses, too.”.Many of the assaults are over fare disputes, even though operators are told “to inform not enforce.”.“If they throw a handful of gravel in that fare box tell them, ‘Thank you very much, here’s your transfer.’ Or, ‘Yeah, whatever buddy, you don’t have the money, you can pay double next time.’”.But the problem is deeper than fare disputes. Hiring more peace officers will bring much needed relief to current employees..“The problem we’ve been experiencing is it’s a very stressful job. Picture it being your job to be on the system every single day of your work life. Every single day of your work life you encounter people overdosing, you’re administering naloxone repeatedly, sometimes several times in a day, to try and save lives. You’re witnessing and responding to crimes sometimes petty, sometimes significant.”.“That is a tough, tough place to be. We have peace officers who are getting stressed, fatigued, traumatized. We’re talking about mental illness. They’re subject to that as well.”.“We find absenteeism is high and that drives overtime. So, when you have people in that very traumatic job description and they’re having to work overtime repeatedly, it’s like this endless cycle of trauma and absence.”.Bradshaw said Edmonton public transit woes aren’t unique..“The disorder on our transit system is not Edmonton specific. It’s broad-based. It’s across the country, everybody has this problem. I don’t care if it’s Winnipeg Transit or Halifax, Vancouver, or Toronto. We are experiencing it everywhere — Phoenix, Boston. Doesn’t matter.”.“So, with that in mind when we talk about how to resolve our problems, we have to talk about resolving the root problems. And that is essentially, we have somehow come to expect we have homeless people on our streets. And homelessness has attached itself, to some extent, to mental illness, which we recognize far more now today.”.Resources and ideas from all levels of government are needed to solve the problem, he said..“But in the meantime, we have to do things locally to be able to attract ridership and make them feel safe. The reality is it’s our job to make the ridership feel safe and seem safe. Perception is as important as the reality.”.“It’s equally important that our staff are safe and, for that matter, those homeless people that are huddling down in the corners trying to catch a bit of warmth. They must be safe as well. What they’re not safe from is the criminal element that follows them onto the system to sell them drugs or perpetrate whatever violence they have in mind.”.The extra peace officers may build on the existing Community Outreach Transit Teams (COTT) in which transit peace officers and outreach workers patrol, monitor, and respond to non-criminal situations..COTT teams help connect vulnerable populations with resources offering housing, food, social support services and mental health supports..Bradshaw was encouraged by 2023-26 budget proposals that included $74.8 million for affordable housing and homelessness prevention, and $25.6 million for affordable housing grants over four years. On-demand transit also received an increase of more than $42.9 million..As well, the administration must cut $15 million in spending each year over the four years..“I’m not opposed to these initiatives. There are so many positions that just seem to duplicate, over-duplicate, and re-duplicate people’s work. There’s all kinds of money they can be saving without reducing frontline staff in essential services.”.Also, on Tuesday the UCP government announced the Edmonton Public Safety and Community Response Task Force which will tackle social issues through an immediately coordinated response between the province, city, and local partners to build on measures-in-place to help recovery in addiction and mental health care.Addiction, homelessness, and public safety issues have impacted all Alberta communities, with Edmonton being especially hard hit..The task force will implement initiatives in the Edmonton metropolitan region as part of a $187-million commitment to address addiction and homelessness urban centres.
