OC Transpo lags in transit security

Additional special constables may be needed, councillors say after seeing other cities’ numbers

Fewer special constables patrol Ottawa’s transit system than those in two comparable Canadian cities.

The numbers, obtained by the Citizen, are prompting at least two city councillors to ask whether more needs to be done to ensure passenger safety here.

OC Transpo has 48 constables responsible for dealing with the majority of crime and disorder on transit property to reduce the workload for Ot- tawa police. That compares with 89 constables in Calgary and 61 in Edmonton, cities with systems of similar size.

Comparing transit security can be difficult because of the different types of systems and the varying levels of crime, but the 48 figure from Ottawa struck several people who head transit security in other cities as low.

“Oh, my goodness. I didn’t realize it was so low,” said Neil Dubord, chief officer with Translink, the transit provider for Vancouver’s sweeping system, which covers 1,800 square kilometres. Dubord previously worked for transit in Edmonton.

He and other experts, including those in Ottawa, agreed that a strong enforce- ment presence, obtained through staffing or crime analysis techniques, prevents incidents and increases overall passenger safety.

Transpo management has said it has no plans to reconsider staffing levels until lightrail transit launches in 2018.

However councillors such as Tim Tierney say something may need to happen sooner.

“I think we’ll have to look and see what we can do before then in terms of having more boots on the ground,” said Tierney, who represents Beacon Hill-Cyrville Ward. “We’re always trumpeting that we want more people on buses, or on the future LRT or even the O-Train. If we want those numbers to grow, we’re going to have to make sure people feel safe when taking transit.”

Coun. Mathieu Fleury was alarmed to hear how this city stacked up in terms of its special constables complement, particularly because of recent, high-profile reports of sexual assaults on transit property in Ottawa. The representative from Rideau-Vanier ward said he wants to be sure there is enough of a security presence to deter crime.

“If there is a reason, that’s fine, but in lieu of everything that has happened on buses and at transit stations in recent months, there is a very fair question to ask in terms of our ability to respond to issues on transit,” he said.

The head of security and enforcement for OC Transpo, James Babe, cautioned against hiring more constables, saying the current force is enough.

“I would reassure them that certainly in 2013 and 2014, we have sufficient resources to deal with what we have,” Babe said. “I can say with a lot of confidence that 48 officers is sufficient.”

He said he will be reviewing what increases are needed when Ottawa’s first LRT line opens in five years, but not before then.

The need for more staffing in Calgary and Edmonton stems, at least in part, from those cities already having a functioning LRT. However experts in the Alberta cities said the comparison with Ottawa’s current system is still fair. They said busy stations along the Transitway cre- ate high-traffic areas that could likely benefit from regular security patrols, if not a constant staff presence.

Some commission members, including Coun. Rainer Bloess, agreed with Babe that the current number of 48 constables is adequate, citing the fact the constables work closely with Ottawa Police Service and share resources.

That said, transit staff in both Calgary and Edmonton also rely heavily on local police forces. Calgary’s officers patrol mainly LRT stations and trains, but a new batch of officers starting next year will be dedicated solely to buses.

Coping with scarce resources, some transit security chiefs have turned to advanced data analysis to make sure officers are deployed more efficiently to create a stronger presence at busy stations. That’s an ability Ottawa lacks at the moment. Edmonton and Vancouver rely heavily on electronic software that identifies where and when problems are likely to occur by crunching a year’s worth of reported incidents to produce daily reports.

“We know what times of day and ... what stations to be at in order to best reduce crime,” said Dubord.

Edmonton’s transit security co-ordinator boasts about his software as well. Glenn Dennis said he uses crime prediction reports to better deploy his staff.

“Because we have limited resources, and we’re no different than anywhere else on that, we had to become a little smarter in how we do things,” he said.

OC Transpo staff look at weekly incident reports that are analyzed manually to determine where to send officers in the four zones they regularly patrol. Those zones are broken down to east, south, west and the downtown area.

Babe says he is — as part of the new 10-point safety plan — looking at software programs used in other cities to identify the best way to implement such technology here. He says his constables travel in vehicles, getting out at busy stations to do patrols, including trips on buses.

Tierney said he would also like to see more sophisticated crime analysis tools used for transit security. This month, OC Transpo was criticized by women’s groups after it took nearly a week to produce reports about harassment and assault incidents for 2013.

The figures eventually showed there were 100 of such reports, but critics questioned why the data had not been collected previously.