Calgary Transit security will be beefed up with added personnel and deployment adjustments slated to go into effect immediately.
On Monday, Mayor Jyoti Gondek, Chief of Public Vehicle Standards Division, Aaron Coon, and Calgary Police Service Chief Constable Mark Neufeld announced the plan for immediate action to address safety concerns around transit.
Among the changes will be a doubling of contracted security guards from eight to 16, jumping to 24 by the end of April. They will also be increasing night patrols with police officers and peace officers from four to seven nights per week. Peace officers will also be deployed to other operational areas to aid transit safety initiatives.
Officers will also be sent proactively to areas when suspicious behaviour or gatherings happen.
Further, Calgary Transit will run announcements saying the area is under surveillance and for transit users. Transit stations will be cleaned more frequently, and a rapid response unit will be deployed to fix infrastructure damaged by vandals.
Mayor Gondek said they’re taking a compassionate approach to vulnerable Calgarians.
“But there is a criminal element here and that is what we need to approach at this particular point in time,” Mayor Gondek said.
“Is enforcement the only solution? Absolutely not. It has to be something that is done with collective organizations to ensure public safety for wrapping up enforcement at this particular point in time.”
In last November’s budget meeting, the city allocated an additional $20 million to the Calgary Police Service (CPS), enabling them to bump up the recruitment of 150 new officers.
An additional $33 million was also put into transit recovery, of which $11.2 million is dedicated to transit safety initiatives, such as lighting improvements, among others, said Mayor Gondek. A few weeks ago, council also approved another sum of $32 million in operational savings to be used for system recovery.
“This is a total of $85 million in investments that have allowed Calgary Transit to work in an integrated manner with the Calgary police service. Both organizations have a tremendous amount of trust in each other. And this is the only way that we can establish safety on transit and restore the public’s confidence,” said Gondek.
Transit environment change
In an attempt to reduce suspicious behaviours and gatherings that could escalate into dangerous situations, the City will proactively dispatch resources to increase uniformed presence where needed.
Chief Coon said environmental design plays an important role in the perception of safety on Calgary Transit.
Effective immediately, announcements will run on train stations, stating the platform is under surveillance and only for transit users. Other changes include the creation of a rapid response team that’ll be answering to infrastructure repair due to vandalism or other causes immediately.
Additionally, benches will be removed and there will be areas identified as ‘no waiting zones.’
“We recognize that this is an inconvenience for riders including for people who suffer from mobility issues. We believe that it will have an impact on loitering in our areas,” Coon said.
“We believe in the combination of added public safety presence on our system, combined with the environmental change, and that will help complement the work that we’re already doing.”
Last month, the City of Calgary said the lighting at all downtown LRT platforms was upgraded.
Other steps have also been taken, including adding more corporate security at platforms that were attached to City of Calgary buildings.
