News Release

Mayor Kelly Calls for Transit Police

(Thursday, July 31, 2008) - Mayor Peter Kelly called today for HRM to create a transit policing system as part of the larger Metro Transit security strategy.

"We have to do everything we possibly can to ensure operators and passengers on our Metro Transit buses and ferries are safe and secure -- that has always been our top priority," says Mayor Kelly. "Having transit or security police patrolling our transit vehicles and system would improve that safety and security and allow drivers to focus on doing their jobs -- transporting passengers safely".

Some larger Canadian municipalities have transit policing systems, including Ottawa, Toronto, Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver. The duties and responsibilities vary from city to city, but may include uniformed and/or plainclothes officers patrolling the system in separate vehicles, responding to emergency transit calls, riding and patrolling transit vehicles, or enforcing municipal and provincial laws and by-laws.

"We have to find the combination of factors that will work best for our system, and that will involve input from passengers, Metro Transit drivers and administration, police and Council," said Mayor Kelly.

"We want to do this right, but we have to move quickly and decisively to ramp up our security efforts, whether that's engaging transit police or installing cameras and emergency response systems."

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Contact:

Mayor Peter Kelly
490-4010