As the topic of transit safety came up at Edmonton City Hall again on Tuesday, councillors asked police and transit representatives about increasing officer presence and fare gates.
In an update, councillors were told that compared with last October and November, non-violent crimes are going up on transit but crime severity is going down, and ridership is going up.
Two recent violent assaults at Coliseum station have one councillor trying to improve safety. Tim Cartmell is pushing for a pilot project or study considering whether turnstiles would make Edmonton’s LRT system safer.
“Do we not do something — anything, frankly — to make at least the part where you get on and off the train safe to get on and off the train?”
Cartmell would like to see turnstiles be implemented at two LRT stations — one underground — for two years and see what happens. He says the status quo isn’t acceptable.
“It’s like LRT roulette. It might only be one incident that happens in a day or one incident that happens at that platform or only happens a few times a week. But I don’t want it to be me and I don’t want it to be my kids, so I’m not going to take that chance. It’s not safe and I’m not going to take it, that’s the feedback I get,” he said.
“It may be that we’re looking at as much as perception piece as anything, but if that’s what it takes to get people back on this system and make it worthwhile, well then maybe we need to think about it.”
David Cooper was the main author of a 96-page report that examined safety on Calgary transit when that city was looking at a closed system. It found there was no correlation between fare gates and increased transit safety.
“When we looked at other transit agencies across North America and we interviewed their staff, we could not find a correlation between fare gates and safety,” Cooper said Tuesday.
“The use case of fare gates is to collect fares. There are things where you can change access points at the station. There are things where you may change the design, but at the end of the day, a fare gate is designed to collect fares.”
Calgary decided instead to increase staff like peace officers, corporate security, dedicated police resources and additional community outreach teams, and made infrastructure improvements focused on safety.
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Cooper says Calgary and Edmonton are similar in terms of LRT line design, trains, weather and staffing. However, he said one big difference is that a lot of Edmonton’s system is underground.
“I grew up in Edmonton. I take the LRT. Some of the challenges that I’ve experienced in the LRTs are actually in the stairways, they’re in the entrance points, they’re not where you would actually put a fare gate.”
Cartmell thinks there are enough differences between Edmonton and Calgary that turnstiles in Edmonton are at least worth a look.
He says Edmonton has more prisons, less shelter space and underground transit stations.
Calgary also has about double the number of transit peace officers, council heard during Tuesday’s meeting.
Currently, Edmonton has about 93 TPOs and ETS officials said that ideally, they’d have 44 more.
An ETS spokesperson told council that on Sunday evening, there were 228 vulnerable people still inside transit stations at closing time and 12 TPOs were tasked with helping them get out safely by connecting them with shelters or providing some medical care. ETS said that ratio is not ideal from a transit officer safety standpoint.
In terms of police officers, EPS currently has three teams of seven members (six constables and one sergeant) tasked to work the transit system — one group working per day. That means there is a total of 21 dedicated EPS officers for the entire transit system — on shifts. A police official told council Tuesday that with additional provincial funding, they hope to increase that to 50 total officers by November 2024.
“If this is one of the most … high crime priorities, why are they not allocating more officers to this?” Coun. Michael Janz asked. “How is this not an organizational priority?
“We trust the fire department to put the trucks where the fires are. We need to be able to trust the police department to put the officers where they know the crime is. It was very perplexing to read that…. Why are resources not being allocated there?”
The sense of urgency was shared by Cartmell, particularly in light of the two attacks at Coliseum.
“We’ve poured resources into this. Why is there not some combination of police and transit police officers at least in what’s reported to be the most dangerous places on the system more consistently? That’s an open question and I’d really like an answer.”
When asked about this during the council meeting, the EPS representatives said the service is using data to determine where officers should be deployed. They track where incidents are, watch for trends and deploy resources to combat that and any associated community displacement. They also said patrol positions are filled first.
Over the last 180 days, ETS received reports of 15 assault incidents that occurred at the Coliseum LRT station and 13 that occurred at the Coliseum Transit Centre. According to ETS, these incidents range from spitting to personal injury from a physical altercation.
In the last year, adjustments have been made across the system, according to ETS. Branch manager Carrie Hotton-MacDonald said at that station, there has been 24-7 security since mid-October and both transit peace officers (TPOs) and transit community safety teams (TRACS) are regularly deployed to monitor Coliseum station.
Across the transit system, more safety measures are in place than ever before, Hotton-MacDonald said. There are more EPS officers, TPOs and outreach workers, “which will allow us to target our deployment so that we’ll have the right resource at the right place at the right time.”
There have also been security upgrades to doors and cameras, Hotton-MacDonald said.
Cooper said cities should consider the root issues causing safety concerns before looking at infrastructure changes like turnstiles.
“Individuals who are unhoused or individuals who are maybe using substances are not the ones typically committing crimes, but it does add a perception of safety for some riders.
“Because we don’t have the public health infrastructure in Alberta, people have come to transit as a safe place for a whole suite of reasons and that’s one of the things I think is rearing its head on this conversation.”
Janz is open to looking at research into the efficacy and cost of fare gates but isn’t holding his breath.
“I’m skeptical that there’s a quick, easy techno-fix to this incredibly complex, complicated problem…. The last thing I want to do is just throw a ton of money at a solution that doesn’t actually solve the problem,” he said.
“What does work is people — having staff, having transit police, having regular police, having security that can go and intervene. Ultimately, fare gates only work for law-abiding people who pay for their ticket.”