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Reducing Sexual Offences

If you witness or experience any type of sexual assault or harassment, unwanted touching or gestures, please report it.

Text the Metro Vancouver Transit Police at 87-77-77 or contact us at 604.515.8300.

For anonymous reporting, call Crime Stoppers at 1.800.222.8477.

Everyone has the right to feel safe on public transit

More than half of Canadian women over the age of 16 report having some form of unwanted sexual contact. However, only 10 percent of victims ever report incidents of unwanted sexual attention. Too often, mass transit systems provide busy and crowded environments that offenders use to find potential victims.

Metro Vancouver Transit Police is committed to preventing these types of crimes by raising awareness, fostering stronger partnerships and through the careful management of repeat offenders.

On July 6, 2018, Metro Vancouver Transit Police launched the next phase in our ongoing campaign against sexual offending on our transit system. Over the months of July, August and September, hundreds of ads are being placed on SkyTrain cars, SkyTrain stations (including both posters and LCD Screens), buses and bus stops.

The purposes of the campaign are to reduce the number of sex offences occurring on our transit system by making it an unwelcome environment for offenders, to increase the number of sex offences reported to the Metro Vancouver Transit Police so that victims can be supported and offenders can be arrested and prosecuted, and to provide safety messaging and police contact information to our passengers. Read the Media Release

Partnerships

Awareness campaigns are only successful when they involve strong professional and community partnerships. In addition to TransLink, which has been extremely generous in their commitment to ad space on the system, we are fortunate to have a number of such partners involved in our current anti-sex offence campaign:

Transit Police also works in collaboration with the Chief’s Community Council (CCC) advisory group to increase the effectiveness of public awareness campaigns. Our specially trained officers deliver education and awareness programs to groups within the transit community. Find out more about Transit Police Community Outreach. These partnerships play a role in helping us to identify and reach vulnerable people groups with the goal of encouraging reporting.

Presentations

Providing presentations to vulnerable persons such as students and new Canadians, we focus on reducing victimization by raising awareness and building relationships that enhance reporting. Transit Police is committed to taking every incident of unwanted sexual behaviour very seriously and investigating all reports thoroughly.

Text 87-77-77 or call 604-515-8300 to discreetly report non-emergency issues. Should you or anyone else feel threatened always call 911. Find out more about how to report a non-emergency issue to Transit Police.

Managing repeat offenders

Transit Police has an established offender management program. Each offender identified by the program is closely monitored for compliance with release conditions and subjected to regular review in order to reduce the chances of re-offending. Some offenders may not be prolific in any one city, but are shown to be prolific when examined in relation to transit, as they commit their offences throughout the region. Read more about the General Investigation Unit who manages this program.


Video: Do you know what happens when you send Transit Police a text message?

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