posted by yellowfever at ssc:
SkyTrain crime crackdown coming[/B]
By Jeff Nagel - BC Local News
Published: December 02, 2008 2:00 PM
Updated: December 02, 2008 4:11 PM
The SkyTrain stations where passengers feel most anxious and insecure will get full-time uniformed patrols as TransLink unleashes a barrage of new measures to convince people it's safe to ride.
The changes – which include plans to use police dogs and new ways to alert security to trouble – follow extensive consultations and the completion of two detailed studies on crime along SkyTrain.
Rapid transit officials say the work has led them to conclude Transit Police must attack stations perceived as most dangerous even if actual crime stats don't bear that out.
The four most feared stops – Surrey Central, New Westminster, Broadway and Main Street stations – now have attendants or police stationed at them full time, along with Metrotown in the evening.
Passenger surveys found Waterfront station in downtown Vancouver was perceived as the safest spot on the line, but that area actually has the highest rate of crimes per 100,000 people passing through.
"Other stations have much lower crime rates and yet the anxiety level is high, due to the presence of what transit customers call 'unsavoury people' in or around stations," said Doug Kelsey, president of the TransLink subsidiary that runs SkyTrain. "There are things we can and will do about that."
Surrey Central is the station passengers surveyed found least safe, and it had the second highest crime incident rate of all stations.
Transit Police are also testing the use of police dogs – either black labs or German shepherds – and weighing whether they want dogs trained to sniff out explosives, drugs, or for general duty work.
Transit Police Chief Ward Clapham said regular dog sweeps would reassure riders.
"It would be a deterrent to those that would commit crime on and around our system," he said. "And I mean bus loops, bus stations and on the buses also, not just on SkyTrain."
An eight-officer crime reduction unit has also been formed, and now has an analyst attached to provide intelligence-led or "smart" policing.
Drug sweeps have been an increased focus for Transit Police already this year, with arrests up 83 per cent over last year.
Eleven Transit Police officers have just been issued bikes and 10 more will have them by the new year.
The two-wheeled patrols are what Clapham counts as a force multiplier that will speed officers through the neighbourhoods around stations and along trails to root out trouble.
He counts each pair of officers on bikes as having the impact and feel to citizens of eight regular officers.
Clapham said more also must be done by other levels of government to address the problems of drug addiction and mental illness that are key sources of crime and anti-social behaviour.
Police can't keep following the traditional approach of arresting those who cause crimes or disturbances.
"They go to jail, they go to court and they're right back out again," Clapham said. "It's just a revolving door. I'm trying to muster up the community to say 'enough is enough.'
"Not every time does it make sense to be jailing a mentally ill or drug addicted person. We've got to think smarter than that."
Improved lighting and video surveillance are also part of TransLink's strategy to improve SkyTrain security.
The possible use of turnstiles and smart cards is also being studied.
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Survey results and crime maps from SkyTrain/crime research
http://www.bclocalnews.com/news/SkyT...wn_coming.html
'SkyWatch' snitch line coming to transit
A group of hooligans riding SkyTrain are drinking, making threatening comments and effectively terrorizing the other passengers.
Everyone's scared. No one gets up to press the yellow alarm strip to call security.
Transit Police Chief Ward Clapham has been on just such a train, dressed in civilian slacks and a golf shirt on his way downtown to the Festival of Lights.
Clapham discreetly pulled out his cell phone and tapped out a text message.
"I text messaged my office, said here's where I'm at, here's where we're going."
Police officers boarded the train at Stadium station.
"The rest of the people on the train stood up and started cheering and clapping," Clapham recalls.
The four men were booted off the train, lost their liquor and were issued tickets.
Clapham says a new program called SkyWatch will let any SkyTrain user with a mobile phone call for help the same way, starting next year.
Passengers and the public will be urged to text in reports of trouble and suspected criminal behaviour.
SFU Surrey communications manager Terry Lavender said he's hesitated before to get up and press the alarm strip because he feared he'd draw the wrath of the rowdy and belligerent thugs on board and help would take too long to arrive.
"Text messaging would be great," he said.
Student Sanum Sandhu agrees.
"That's a pretty good idea," he said. "It makes it less obvious. I think more people will be willing to call for help if they weren't afraid of drawing attention to themselves."
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Before the 'crime train' arrives
New research has shed light on how to prevent crime from taking root in an area before SkyTrain arrives.
A Transit Police study looked at a month of incidents within 250 metres of sites of the future Canada Line stations in Richmond.
It found six per cent of crime incidents in Richmond happened in that zone – even though rapid transit has not yet arrived – while four per cent of crime in Surrey happens within 250 metres of that city's existing four SkyTrain stations.
Further analysis is planned to see what can be done to reduce crime along the future line in Richmond or prevent it from increasing after the Canada Line opens late next year.
One idea is for the city to use zoning and business licensing to bar certain types of operations from setting up shop near future stations, including cheque-cashing services, adult video stores, pawn brokers and some fast food outlets.
The report also suggests Richmond carefully consider the impacts of letting services for the drug addicted locate along the corridor.
An improved streetscape design on No. 3 road is planned to attract more people, using lighting, cycling infrastrucgture, street furniture, artwork and other amenities to establish a "tone" for the area that may lead to a better sense of security.
Similar "transit village" concepts are being explored for Surrey Central, Edmunds and Broadway that may lay the groundwork for expansion to more stations.
Research also suggests the Richmond crime hotspot isn't the only area in the region where high crime rates pre-dated the arrival of SkyTrain.
The report says the drug trade has thrived at the Broadway/Commercial area, Columbia Street in New Westminster and Whalley in Surrey for decades before the Expo Line was built.
It also notes a 250-metre radius around some stations includes significant numbers of methadone clinics, needle exchanges and similar services.
The addiction services, the dealing, graffiti, litter, and low-end businesses that are attracted send unsavoury signals to the public and heighten apprehension, it said.
Findings show 12 per cent of crime in Burnaby and Vancouver happens within 250 metres of local SkyTrain stations, and four per cent of crime in the case of Surrey.
Drug crime is the most prevalent within those zones.
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