Transit Police look to do more to prevent sex assaults on buses and trains
Posted June 23, 2016 7:52 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Transit Police say they’re on the case as sex assaults on buses and trains seem all too common.
More victims are coming forward to report cases of assault, making it look like assaults are on the rise.
Transit Police Chief Doug Lepard says the uptick in reported assaults is a positive in a rather discouraging situation.
“We don’t want to see sex crimes increase, we want to see them reduced. But we do want to see the reporting increased,” says Lepard, who adds his investigators are exceptionally good at solving these crimes.
“We have really good data in terms of where they occur, when they occur, times of the day, days of the week and so on so that we’re able to focus our resources. We have a number of different strategies.”
In most cases, victims known their attackers. Lepard says in 60 per cent of the incidents they’ve dealt with, the suspect was not previously known to police.
Transit Police are looking into ways they can prevent more of these attacks from happening.
“We can do more in terms of working with TransLink employees like the SkyTrain attendants because there is characteristic of some of these offenders.”
