The day detectives named a suspect in last week’s shooting on a crowded subway platform, police confirmed dozens of officers may soon be walking the beat in TTC stations.
Thursday, little more than a week after a man was shot and wounded at Osgoode subway station, police have announced plans to assign armed officers to transit lines.
“It’s the chief’s view that they can be used most effectively with transit as well as with traffic,” Mark Pugash, Toronto police spokesperson, said Thursday.
“The announcement was made some time ago and we’re waiting patiently for the funding.”
The details are still being ironed out, Pugash said, but discussions to send uniformed police into a system already patrolled by TTC special constables have been ongoing for months and has no connection to recent violence.
Higher ridership, more transit police and security cameras were to blame for the increase in crime figures in 2007, spokespeople said. They said assaults, including an average of one a day on operators, and theft accounted for many incidents.
