Over the month of May, passengers on Saskatoon Transit buses had front row seats to four violent incidents including two stabbings, the assault of a bus driver, and a group of three men fighting.
In response to this, the City is partnering with Saskatoon’s police and fire services to implement several measures to increase driver and passenger safety.
Director of Saskatoon Transit Mike Moellenbeck says the city is exploring the feasibility of installing CCTV security cameras at the Downtown and Confederation Mall terminals.
“The cameras would be there providing additional CCTV footage to help with post incident analysis and things of that nature. That is one of the items that is currently being worked on internally before we look to have that launch.”
He adds that there will be an increase of uniformed presence on bus routes.
“In May alone, we increased our safety patrols with commissionaires, so there are increased security patrols through our Downtown Terminal, Confederation Terminal, as well as Market Mall. In addition to that, we have our Fire Community Support Officers that’ll be launching here in July.”
He says a process to ban problem customers will also be developed, however most actions will focus on prevention rather than punishment.
Darcy Pederson, President of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 615, says the actions the city plans to take are a good start, but there have been security cameras on buses for years already, and they haven’t stopped incidents from happening.
Moellenbeck says “Some of these initiatives aren’t necessarily going to limit the interaction from happening, but they’re definitely going to help with the response to the incident either immediately or afterwards.”
The full list of initiatives announced Thursday include:
1. Streamlined process for reporting an incident to Saskatoon Police Service to assist the incident investigation.
2. Deployment of the Fire Community Support team to bus terminals and on bus routes with a higher number of reported incidents.
3. Running a public marketing campaign featuring frontline employees from Saskatoon Transit to increase the profile of bus operators in the community.
4. Developing a process to ban a problem customer from Saskatoon Transit buses and facilities.
5. Exploring the feasibility of installing CCTV cameras at the Downtown and Confederation Mall terminals.
6. Rolling out the new Workplace Violence Prevention Policy and updated Respectful and Harassment-free Workplace process and introducing the new Corporate Customer Conduct Standard.
7. Developing and delivering new customer service and de-escalation training for frontline Saskatoon Transit employees.
8. Enhanced mental health support for Saskatoon Transit employees.
9. Advocating for tougher sentences under the Criminal Code for assaults against a Saskatoon Transit employee.
