Representing You at the Chief’s Community Council

On February 11, 2014, the creators/moderators of this blog will be attending the first meeting of the Transit Police Chief’s Community Council. In the words of the Transit Police: “The objective of the Council is to bring community members together to gather information and perspectives on transit related safety and security issues in the BC lower mainland, and to collaboratively develop strategies to make transit safer for all users, and to prevent and reduce crime on transit vehicles and in and around transit stations.”

Members of the council are, ideally, representatives of their particular communities (in our case women and others who are marginalized based on sex/gender, which is to say people who are most likely to come into contact with sexual harassment or assault as transit riders), in order to bring community concerns into an open dialogue. 

We would like to invite our readers and contributors to bring any questions or concerns you may have regarding gendered or sexualized safety issues in your ridership experience. You can submit anonymously through the “Tell Your Story” link at the top of the page, or you can email us directly at translink.harassment@gmail.com. 

 

Please note that we will be in direct dialogue with the Transit Police, not TransLink, and the focus will be on developing and improving the relationship between law enforcement and the transit-riding community. General issues to be tabled include but are not limited to: 

• crime reduction, prevention and social disorder

• customer service

• collaboration with the police and other agencies

• misunderstandings and stereotypes

Anything pertaining to fares, routes, and the rollout of the new Compass system will be rather out of our wheelhouse, and as much as we are concerned with the operating practices of TransLink, we won’t be in conversation with them at this time. 

 

And as always, we are still inviting submissions of personal stories of harassment and assault (they are instrumental in creating a nuanced understanding of how these incidents play out within the transit system, even those stories that are years old), and we encourage anyone who experiences harassment and assault going forward to report the details directly to the Transit Police. 
Phone:  604.515.8300 / Text: 87-77-77.