Fighting insecurity, from Toronto to Montreal

At the start of 2023, I went to Toronto to see the outbreak of violence on public transit.

It was heavy and ugly.

Machete or syringe attacks, immolation, rifle shots, passengers pushed onto the rails, murders: this series of gratuitous crimes had created a completely understandable panic among users.¹.

No one has yet been murdered in the Montreal metro, and that’s a good thing.

But the feeling of insecurity is increasing, after a series of recent attacks. More and more people are now hesitant to use the network. Some have already given up.

The Société de transport de Montréal (STM) fears that its ridership will decline if the trend continues. A legitimate fear, if I trust the ton of emails I received after a recent foray into the gloomy daily life of the metro².

Toronto has implemented a muscular strategy to reverse the trend, from which Montreal is taking inspiration today.

The central element of Toronto’s action plan could be summed up as follows: visibility, visibility and visibility.

After acts of violence increased in 2022 and early 2023, the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) hired dozens of special constables to patrol its subway. She also recruited a host of customer service agents, clearly visible at the stations with their fluorescent bibs.

A text messaging service has also been set up to allow users to discreetly report any worrying situation in real time.

The objective of all these measures is clear: to make users (and potential attackers) feel a constant presence on the ground. Remind everyone that metro stations and bus terminals are not lawless zones.

The game is far from won, Stuart Green, spokesperson for the TTC, told me on Wednesday. But the statistics speak for themselves: the trend is downward.

The rate of attacks against network employees fell by 40% between January 2023 and January 2024, while it fell by 22% towards users.

Users’ feeling of satisfaction with network security increased by seven points during the same period. Two-thirds of TTC passengers feel genuinely comfortable, which still leaves a fair number of people worried.

Montreal is not remaining idle in the face of the current crisis.

The STM has around 160 special constables, equipped with telescopic batons and pepper spray. Around forty others will be trained by next winter. They patrol the 68 metro stations and respond to 185 incidents per day on average, significantly more than last year.

The carrier has added the services of around fifteen “security ambassadors” in recent months. The Montreal City Police Service (SPVM), for its part, has assigned around a hundred agents exclusively to resolving crimes committed in the network.

That’s a lot of resources, but it’s not enough to allay users’ fears. As the saying goes, people don’t want knowbut the see.

Or rather : see them.

It is with this in mind that the STM quickly came up with a plan called “Reassurance”, announced on Wednesday. It will temporarily increase the presence of its staff in the 10 most problematic metro stations.

Teams of four employees will patrol from morning until evening in a cluster of three stations, and they will be able to intervene quickly if an incident occurs. This is a good start, but this plan will not ensure a continuous presence at each of the hottest stations – which many users would have liked.

The STM will re-evaluate this plan within a month, when some of the homeless people who wander in the metro will move their homes to parks and other outdoor places.

Because the crisis observed in Toronto, New York and Montreal is first and foremost a public health crisis. The pandemic has compounded problems that had already existed for a long time: the lack of resources for homelessness, addiction and mental health.

Much of the incivility observed in the metro is caused by people who suffer from these ailments, but have nowhere else to go. Public transport networks become their default refuge.

Moreover, the STM does not intend to chase the homeless out of the metro, regardless of certain users. A policy of “tolerance” will continue to be practiced, as in Toronto.

The situation remains chaotic in many ways. Around 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday, on my way to the STM press conference, I witnessed the arrest of a very agitated homeless man at the Berri-UQAM station, who was shouting racist insults at a group of six special constables. Sweet morning.

Later that same day, as I was writing this, a reader informed me of a violent “bloody battle” unfolding before his eyes at Atwater Station.

It’s not complicated: for the situation to truly resolve, there would need to be massive reinvestment by the three levels of government in social housing, mental health support and addiction resources.

Don’t hold your breath too much. This will not happen tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.

We should not expect miracles from the STM’s new security plan, which the opposition at city hall criticized as soon as it was announced.

But there are still thin glimmers of hope.

I spoke with Jocelyn Latulippe, safety and fire safety director at the STM. In addition to the forty additional constables expected by next winter, the carrier also plans to review its electronic surveillance system, he told me.

The 2000 cameras are being replaced. New technologies are being considered to detect dangerous situations remotely, notably using artificial intelligence. An emergency text messaging service, similar to that in Toronto, is also being studied.

The STM does well to consider all these tools, which could make up for the shortage of its staff in the field. Users need “reassurance”, and it’s urgent.

1. Read the column “Rifles, machetes and anxiety on public transport”

2. Read the file “Feeling of insecurity: a day in the metro”