Toronto Police End Exceptional Transit Deployment
The Toronto Police Service announces that the temporary strengthening of its presence in the public transport network has ended.
Since late January, the TPS has been deploying around 80 additional officers daily to the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) system after a series of violent assaults on passengers.
In a statement, the TPS explains that it will now resume deploying primarily on-duty officers to the transit system and integrating these patrols into regular operational work.
Additional support will resume if deemed necessary, the police service said, which will continue to respond to reports or emergency calls.
Officers Police will be patrolling during peak times when calls for service are high, TPS Chief Myron Demkiw said.
During the month and a half of enhanced presence, TPS officers made more than 314 arrests and provided more than 220 referrals to people who needed help obtaining social services, including shelter, food and mental health care.
Some 50 security guards have also been added to the CTT teams on a temporary basis since the end of January.
< p class="e-p">User advocacy group TTCRiders continues to criticize the initiative to put more police. On twitter, the group believes that this was not an evidence-based approach to ensuring passenger safety.
The group regrets also that the data regarding abuses in the city's transportation compiles a wide range, from mischief to assault.
TTRiders regrets that the TTR data does not allow not to distinguish the severity of the different incidents.
