Crime rates up on Metro transit: police

Pandemic has introduced new tensions, prof says

Transit ridership in Metro Vancouver has fallen significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic, but that hasn't been accompanied by a drop in the crime rate, according to the latest Transit Police data.

A report presented to Translink's board of directors this week showed the numbers of property crimes and crimes against people have fallen during the pandemic, but the actual rates per passenger are up.

“The vast majority of people who use transportation are there, I call it, for a legitimate purpose. They're using it to go to work, to socialize, go to school, get somewhere for entertainment, to visit. That is the vast majority of our users,” Transit Police Chief Dave Jones told board members on Thursday. “So, when we lost ridership, it's no surprise that with the loss of people using it for a legitimate purpose, (there) wasn't a corresponding drop in necessarily some of the issues that we experience or the calls.”

Over the course of the pandemic, Transit Police have dealt with 38 per cent fewer files, but that is largely due to the fact that there are fewer violation tickets being issued. Jones said his members have still been busy.

“Even though ridership dropped, there wasn't a similar drop in the number of calls,” Jones said. “As ridership declined, the volumes of crime saw a much smaller reduction, and slowly since then it has been increasing.”

Compared to last year, the first three quarters of 2020 saw a 73 per cent increase in crimes against people per 100,000 passengers and a 60 per cent increase in crimes against property. Other Criminal Code violations were up 58 per cent. The actual number of crimes against people for the first three quarters of 2020 was 1,122, compared to 1,285 for the same period in 2019 — a 13 per cent decrease. There were 1,205 crimes against property in 2020, compared to 1,483 last year, which is a 19 per cent decrease.

Neil Boyd, a criminology professor at Simon Fraser University, said the higher crime rate in spite of lower actual numbers of crime is not surprising to see, and almost predictable.

He said with the removal of regular commuters who are either working from home or were laid off, the makeup of the transit ridership is different, plus the pandemic has inadvertently introduced new tensions. “There seems to be a logical link between some of the conflicts created by the pandemic around masks and around racist sentiments. That may explain why although the ridership has gone down and the absolute numbers haven't changed much, the rates of both crimes against property and crimes against people have changed,” he said.

However, Boyd said that when more people return to work and transit, the crime rates will likely go back to pre-pandemic levels.