BEEFED-UP TRANSLINK COPS READY TO GO

Transit: New Force Will Have More Powers But Waiting On Word About Carrying
Guns

Coming soon to a station near you: SkyTrain cops, Canada's first
independent transit police force.

The designated police unit -- the Greater Vancouver Transit Authority
Police Service -- is all but ready to hit the rails.

Victoria has signed off in principle on the unique force, a preliminary
police board has been established, funding has been approved, the uniforms
are freshly pressed and waiting . . . why, the Queen herself has just given
the royal nod to the force's new shoulder flash and coat of arms.

But at the TransLink Security bunker near New Westminster's Columbia
Station, 86 SkyTrain officers currently working as "special constables"
with restricted police powers await the green light that will invest them
with the authority to enforce drug laws, execute outstanding warrants and
arrest people who commit crimes beyond TransLink's property lines.

The long-awaited changeover was supposed to occur this month. But there's
been a hitch. At issue is whether or not to arm the new force, which
currently packs only pepper spray and retractable batons.

According to Transit Security manager Bob Kind, the former RCMP officer
tapped to become the chief officer of the new unit, a Justice Institute of
B.C. delegation visited Montreal and Toronto's transit systems with an eye
to providing our guys with guns.

That's confusing, because both Montreal and Toronto use unarmed, special
provincial constables on their transit systems, officers with the same
limited powers as SkyTrain's.

Still, the Justice Institute will present its report next month to
Solicitor-General Rich Coleman, who makes the final call on guns and
green-lights the constables-to-cops changeover.

"These are not wannabe cops or glorified guards," Kind says, of the 80 men
and six women waiting in the wings for their police patches.

"On average, there is 18 to 19 years' policing experience per member in
this department."

Indeed, the future SkyTrain cops are predominantly former or retired police
officers, many of them former career RCMP officers.

Kind, who served with the RCMP for nearly 26 years before joining TransLink
Security in 1995, says his members are currently "really hampered doing a
proper law enforcement job out there" and eagerly await the changeover.

Of the 86 special constables under his command, 64 already have training
that meets or exceeds levels required by municipal police forces in B.C.
Seventeen more will be fully certified by March, and the remainder fully
qualified by early July.

TransLink will fund the new force, created under the B.C. Police Act, and
pump $750,000 to $800,000 into startup costs for uniforms, equipment and
technical links to existing police databases and communications systems.

"It provides an added level of confidence for the public," says Kind of a
newly empowered police force. "There will be more police out there with
more authority and the tools to get the job done."

It's a sentiment echoed by SkyTrain president and CEO Doug Kelsey, who says
the Lower Mainland's automated people-mover -- and its nearly 200,000 daily
passengers -- are long overdue for a full-fledged police force.

He commends TransLink, the Crown corporation that operates SkyTrain, for
pushing the initiative.

"This is good leadership. And I think in the year's ahead, the public will
see the good decision [the TransLink board] made. These guys need the tools
to do the job."

While Kelsey questions the veracity of a recent Vancouver police report
claiming 55 per cent of all alleged criminals arrested last year in
Vancouver were nabbed within 700 metres of a SkyTrain station (essentially,
the entire southeast sector of the city), he is first to admit crime on and
around SkyTrain stations are problems that need to be addressed.

"Crime on SkyTrain is quite low," he says. "Do we have crime? The answer
is, yes. But it's a social problem, not a SkyTrain problem.

"Part of [criminal] mobility, unfortunately, is SkyTrain.

"Criminals could literally cross the street and our constables couldn't
cross the street to go get 'em because they could only work within the
property line," he explains.

"That wasn't fair for them."

The SkyTrain boss says the Greater Vancouver Transit Authority Police
Service is just one initiative the fare-paying public can look forward to
in the new year.

SkyTrain has plans to upgrade lighting along the line, boost its
fare-evasion fines from $46 to $150, add food and retail outlets (with
public washrooms) to its stations, upgrade information/emergency kiosks,
and use a $2-million federal grant to create "transit villages" that will
"improve the streetscape" around Surrey Central, Edmonds,
Broadway/Commercial and Metrotown stations.

"The new police force is just one component," he says. "My vision of
SkyTrain is to move it from a train station to a community-based station.

"My policy is, all hands on deck."

[SIDEBAR]

SKYTRAIN FACTS

- - Opened: 1986 (Expo Line); 2002 (Millennium Line)

- - Daily ridership: 200,000

- - Stations: 32

- - Closed-circuit cameras: 800

- - Cars: 210

- - Track: 49 km (The world's longest elevated light rapid transit system)

- - Speed: Cruises at 45 km/h; can reach 90 km/h

- - Juice: Runs on 600 volts DC

- - SkyBridge: 1.6 km long

- - SkyTrain attendants: 210

- - Special constables: 86

- - Calls to constables: 14,100

- - Arrests last year: 1,275

- - Tickets for fine and liquor violations in 2003: 44,000

- - Number of escalators: 69.

- - Length of tunnels: 2.5 km

FARE EVASION

- - Fare evasion: 4.5 per cent (2003)

- - Revenues lost: $1.2million to $1.4 million annually (2003)

- - Estimated cost of a turnstile system: $83 million for a system-wide
retrofit; $22 million in annual tax-funded operating costs.