'Acts of aggression' increase on Saskatoon Transit, violence against drivers drops

Saskatoon Transit is reporting an increase in passenger aggression.

Mike Moellenbeck, director of Saskatoon Transit, said "acts of aggression" can be classified as an intent to do harm, but physical violence hasn't happened.

"Types of incidents where windows are being banged by an individual, or a barrier is being hit," Moellenbeck said.

While passenger-on-passenger incidents have increased, Moellenbeck said violence against bus drivers has dropped.

"Largely due to the barriers that are installed," he said.

The information about bus violence was revealed during budget deliberations, when the mayor asked for an update on the new support officers, hired by the fire department, to focus on Saskatoon Transit safety.

The support officers were hired in July. Their goal is to keep the peace and connect vulnerable people with social services they may need.

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The support workers are trained in de-escalation and can call police if needed.

Since the program began, they have ridden city buses 220 times and patrolled transit terminals 350 times.

According to city data, the officers have had to call for police assistance about 12 per cent of the time.

"What we'd say in a nutshell is that we think that the fire support officers have been extremely effective, as far as the people that have been hired are doing what we expected them to do, and they're doing a great job," City Manager Jeff Jorgensen said, during Monday's budget deliberations.

City administration said more data on transit safety will be available at the end of the summer, once the program has been operational for a full year.