As Canadian cities look for ways to combat violence on public transit, experts say strategies south of the border that combine law enforcement, social supports and community engagement could offer new solutions.
Violence on transit has captured national attention in recent weeks - a 17-year-old boy was fatally stabbed on a Vancouver-area bus last week, a man had life-threatening injuries after his throat was slashed on a Surrey, B.C., bus earlier this month, and a 16-year-old boy was stabbed to death in an unprovoked attack at a Toronto subway station in March.
Its SCOPE program - which stands for safety, cleaning, ownership, partnership and engagement - connects vulnerable residents with social services and aims to keep the transit system safe and clean for those who use it. It involves police and social workers but also features partnerships with art programs and a pilot project that sees medical students help provide health resources.
“They're informed they have to leave the station and there's a lot of complexity with that,” said Cooper, who has held transit planning and policy roles in Calgary, Vancouver and Toronto. Philadelphia's transit system also runs a program called SAVE - which stands for saving a vulnerable entity. It sees police and social workers pair up on the transit system but focuses more on engagement and relationship-building over enforcement, said Jerry Ratcliffe, a criminal justice professor at Temple University in Philadelphia.
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