As Toronto police end overtime patrols on transit, some commuters unsure of results - Toronto

I have a rock that I would be willing to sell.

A month of added police presence was never going to solve anything. Our elected officials still have their heads in the sand are refuse to address the fundamental issues here.

The TTC is a transportation service. It relies heavily on the fare box for revenues. No amount of whining about a lack of operating subsidy changes the fact that the TTC needs paying riders in order to provide service. Thus, the TTC needs to ensure that it has as many paying riders as possible. Obviously there are issues with TTC service levels, but you can have the best, most frequent, most reliable service in the world, and if people don't feel safe on the TTC, they aren't going to ride it. So the continued existence of the TTC depends on them making it a safe environment for paying customers. Rick Leary's solution to this problem is to pass the buck, to the Police, to the City, to the healthcare system, anyone but himself. Again, the TTC is a transit service, not a social services agency. It's not their job to solve homelessness, that's for other levels of government. Their job is to have a safe transit system that delivers service for paying customers. That responsibility is the TTC's. They can't expect others to fix their problems for them, including the Police. Now obviously the Police should be present on the TTC, but the Police can't be primarily responsible for safety on the TTC. It's not an efficient use of police resources. The vast majority of incidents on the TTC do not require a police response, yet whether the Police are proactively there or not, the Police are routinely called to the TTC to deal with very minor issues such as trespassing or disorderly behaviour, which do not require a Police response. The TTC is a drain on police resources, which would be better used responding to more important calls. The TTC has a proven, effective model for addressing their safety and security needs, their Special Constable Service. The TTC needs to realize it's full potential, and take ownership of safety on their system. 15 years ago TTC Management planned to have 300 special constables by now. They currently have around 100. If there were 300 special constables on the TTC, with the actual support of the CEO to do their jobs and clean up the system, we wouldn't have this crisis of crime. This is a policy choice made by Rick Leary.