TTC board nearly doubles CEO’s spending power for security amid safety concerns

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The TTC has almost doubled the amount of money its chief executive officer can use to ramp up security initiatives, amid increasing concerns about safety on Toronto’s transit system.

The Toronto Transit Commission board on Tuesday increased spending authority for Rick Leary, from $8-million to $15-million. The decision follows a year in which the number of serious offences against passengers jumped by 53 per cent compared with 2021, according to internal TTC data obtained by The Globe and Mail. The increase was driven by a rise in assaults, the incidence of which did not fluctuate much once the pandemic hit, before jumping in 2022.

Much of the increase in serious offences came in the final three months of the year.

The data, obtained through a freedom of information request, reveal six years of monthly numbers for assault, sexual assault, robbery and theft (which is differentiated from robbery by the lack of violence or threat) on the transit system. There were 763 of those serious offences in 2022 compared with 500 the year before. That increase is roughly in line with the total ridership increase over the same period, though the number of these offences rose sharply over the final quarter of the year, when ridership stayed largely flat.

The incidence of robberies and thefts have remained relatively stable during the pandemic, compared with the three years before, while sexual assaults decreased from more than 90 in 2017 to 58 last year. Physical assaults are the outlier. There were 582 assaults on passengers last year, an increase of more than 60 per cent from a year earlier and twice as many as there were in 2017.

December saw the highest numbers in six years of data, with 91 serious offences, 66 of them being assaults on passengers.

In January, after a series of high-profile safety incidents involving TTC passengers, Police Chief Myron Demkiw, then-mayor John Tory and Mr. Leary announced an increase to security patrols on transit. A woman had been fatally stabbed on a subway train in December, and another woman had died after being set on fire at a bus stop last summer.

Temporary actions include the addition of 50 security guards to patrol across the city, 20 community safety ambassadors to support people in distress on the system and upward of 80 additional overtime police officers across the network throughout the day. It’s unclear how long the expanded police deployment will last, but it is costing the service an estimated $1.5-million monthly.

Also last year, a broad category of incidents captured by the TTC under “other” offences surged in the spring of 2022. This category includes social disorder incidents such as harassment, threats and indecent exposure.

In TTC data from January, 2017, through the first part of 2022, these “other” offences were barely noted. Only twice did the number recorded rise above single digits, topping out at 14.

Something changed in the spring of 2022. The number of these more minor offences being recorded jumped to 44 in April, and stayed above two dozen each month for the remainder of the year.

Although safety issues have increased since the pandemic, Mr. Leary said it isn’t unique to Toronto and that many transit authorities are facing similar challenges. Agencies have tried different solutions to violence on their systems, and experts say there is no simple answer why this is happening. Mr. Leary said the TTC is focused on a multifaceted response that includes increased security as well as adding initiatives for those on the transit system in need of housing or mental-health supports.

The TTC’s temporary initiatives are expected to cost $1.4-million until the end of April with funding from the TTC’s reserve, currently sitting just shy of $100-million. With the newly increased spending limit, Mr. Leary could continue the initiatives beyond April or expand them without needing to wait for approval at a future board meeting. He can unilaterally decide to use the money on other measures to address the health, safety and security of TTC employees and customers.

But public speakers at Tuesday’s board meeting argued that beefed-up security isn’t the solution. Transit advocate Ellen Peters took issue with lengthy waits for service, which she said increases the time a security issue could take place.

Planned service adjustments on the TTC will also significantly increase wait times on select routes. Eight per cent of the schedule changes, amounting to 159,000 customer-boardings a week, will result in a longer wait time between three and 11 minutes.

“I strongly believe that the way to improving safety is improving service and decreasing wait times,” Ms. Peters said. “If everyone is moving around quickly, there’s less time for incidents to occur. If there are more witnesses, people are less likely to act out.”