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December 4 will mark 20 years since Transit Police became operational as a Designated Policing Unit and the first police service in Canada dedicated to a transit system. Since then, we have forged a path to become leaders in transit policing, not just in Canada, but globally as well.
We didn’t come from nothing in 2005, though. Our roots go back to the Watchmen of the 1890s, who served to keep the BC Electric Railway streetcars safe. From there, it was a state of unbroken evolution in providing security for the transit system, sometimes with great sacrifice by those who served, including Special Constable Charles Painter who was killed in the line of duty in 1915. When SkyTrain opened in 1985, Special Provincial Constables served to keep the transit system safe; however, as the transit system rapidly grew, so did the need for a dedicated police service.
With the launch of Transit Police in December 2005, many of the Special Constables with specialized transit experience and skillsets attended the Police Academy at the Justice Institute of BC to bring that expertise to the new police service. From there, with no precedent in Canada to follow, our department had to be nimble and quickly adapt policing best practices suited for the unique environment of transit, learning from global transit police agencies in places like New York and the UK.
We have grown with the transit system that saw additions like the Canada Line, RapidBus and the Evergreen expansion of the Millennium Line, to name just a few. Meanwhile, major events like the 2010 Winter Olympics, the 2011 Stanley Cup Riot, and the Covid pandemic delivered challenges that were met and resulted in the development of new strategies, new skills, new tactics and people resources.
We developed specialty units, like our explosive detection dog team, which launched with Transit Police dog Bailey in 2009. We made headlines with high profile arrests. We hosted an international conference on the subject of transit policing. We developed a service delivery model that put the focus on community policing. We launched a text service for the traveling public to share safety concerns discreetly, and regular public safety campaigns to encourage reporting of offences, especially sexual offending. There are far too many accomplishments to list here, but you can see the highlights on our website.
Thanks to a strong foundation based on over a century of transit safety and partnerships with some of the best police agencies in the world, we’ve come a long way in 20 years.
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