The head of Metro Vancouver Transit Police believes the justice system needs a “bit of a reset” when it comes to repeat, violent offenders, particularly with respect to the use of knives.
In an exclusive interview, Chief Officer Dave Jones said the uptick in criminal activity the region has experienced as of late “is not like a light switch,” but an evolution over time.
“You eventually come to a point where you sit back and you realize how far you’ve gone,” he said Monday. “I think it worries me just as a citizen — how am I protected within society?”
His comments come in the aftermath of multiple attacks on Metro Vancouver buses and SkyTrains that have left victims hospitalized with injuries, and in one case, dead.
Abbotsford teen Ethan Bespflug was killed after a stabbing on a Surrey bus on April 11, and a second-degree murder charge was laid against a 20-year-old suspect on Monday.
A man in his 20s was also stabbed at the Surrey Central SkyTrain station last Saturday and brought to the hospital in serious condition. He has since been released.
Meanwhile, three suspects remain at large in a stabbing that left one person in the hospital at the Columbia SkyTrain station in New Westminster last week. No arrests have been made in connection with alleged assaults on a Vancouver bus last Friday, or a West Vancouver bus last Wednesday.
One man was arrested April 9 in connection with a series of alleged assaults on a Millennium Line train in Burnaby and an attempted knife-slashing on the street afterward.
Earlier this month, another man was charged with attempted murder and four counts of terrorism after allegedly slashing a passenger’s throat in the name of ISIS on April 1.
Jones has said there is no “commonality” between these April attacks, which are an “anomaly.”
In response to the uptick, however, transit police have increased patrols on buses and SkyTrains — a task that more commonly performed by transit security officers, who are not armed, and generally focus on fare compliance.
Another 24 community safety officers will soon be added to Metro Vancouver Transit Police’s roster as well, with hiring and training already underway.
Jones said the force predicts more than 50 officers will be needed in the next three or four years to address population growth by transit stations.
“As the Broadway line opens and the Surrey Langley (opens), we would be getting more,” he explained.
“The one thing we’re coming to recognize here, and even the people planning for this is, that all the cities are basing their growth in the lines around transit … so we’re not just concerned with what’s happening physically on here, on the platform. We’re looking at what’s happening around us.”
Jones said transit police have seen a 13 per cent-increase year to date in the number of mental health calls officers respond to.
The force recorded 1,572 “crimes against persons” in 2022, down from a high of 2,056 in 2016, but up from 1,376 in 2021 and 1,456 in 2020. It saw a decline in the volume of reported crimes per 100,000 transit passengers between 2021 and 2022, but noted passenger boardings were up by 45 per cent in that same period.
Jones said it’s important that Metro Vancouver Transit Police work with health authorities in all regions where his officers have jurisdiction. He also said mental health treatment must be available for those on bail or released from incarceration, and breach of release conditions must be met with charges.
“If there are conditions, then we need to make sure those conditions are abided by. We’ve almost moved to the point where people are given conditions, and if they breach those conditions, there’s not a consequence to it,” he said.
Speaking at the B.C. legislature on Monday, Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth said the federal government would like to change the Criminal Code “this session” to crack down on repeat offenders.
Bill C-75 is an act that amended the Criminal Code to modernize and clarify bail provisions. It included a reverse onus provision that for certain crimes, placed the onus on an accused person to demonstrate why they should be let out on bail as opposed to the default — a Charter-protected right “not to be denied reasonable bail without just cause.”
Farnworth has said he wants the reverse onus expanded to cover not only offences where firearms are involved, but knives, bear spray and other weapons too, as well as offences in which the suspect has a history of use of weapons for violence.
Metro Vancouver Transit Police, meanwhile, are urging members of the public once again to use their texting service if they feel unsafe or wish to report a crime.
In 2022, Jones estimated more than 4,600 case files were generated through use of the text service.
“Text us before it gets to anything. We’d rather intervene while it’s at a low level,” he said.
“The trains all have numbers on them. We know the location of the train. We can have trains stopped. We can have buses stopped.”
— with files from Simon Little
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