How many times a year do Transit Police officers draw their guns? And have they ever had to shoot? Those were two questions posed by a citizen to local journalist Frances Bula, and Frances got the answer.

In 2011, 19 TP officers drew their firearms in 10 incidents. In 2012 thus far, 13 members have drawn their firearms in 8 incidents. None have ever been fired. The Transit Police report they receive identical training to other police forces through the Justice Institute and that training is what guides their response.

Interestingly, Frances also gives two examples of when guns were drawn:

Some of the incidents where transit police have had to draw their guns recently: A man was spotted waving around a sword in Metrotown. He then got on SkyTrain and went down to the Burrard station. When he got there, officers had set up a containment zone and had their weapons drawn. In another, transit police got a report of a youth group with a gun (it turned out, in the end, to be fake) and officers had their weapons drawn as they approached the group at “low ready.” 

Now, I do not believe pulling guns once a month should be a measurement of whether you need an armed police force or not. The more telling stat is that the average Transit Police officer deals with less than ten serious and property crimes—including unfounded and unsubstantiated cases—a YEAR.

This does reinforce the fact that unarmed Transit Secruity would be more than capable of handling fare checks and frontline “eyes on the system” crime prevention (and at a huge cost saving). The VPD or other relevant jurisdictional force would have been able to respond just as quickly to the swordsman (Metrotown to Burrard is nine stations and 16 minutes apart).