Time for another Monday Morning Quarterback – five stories the B.C. office is reading this week. This week: an all-TransLink and Transit Police edition (along with our usual hello to Chief Neil Dubord and his “blog monitors”):

1. Delta Mayor Lois Jackson is fed up with her city sending millions to TransLink and watching it get frittered away on things like Transit Police. So she did something about it! According to the Vancouver Sun, it was her motion at the TransLink Mayors Council that asked for a review of Transit Police spending:

Jackson said she sought the report to “illustrate the magnitude” of the Transit police, which has both security guards and “full-fledged gun-toting police officers” responsible for safety and security around the region’s SkyTrain and transit hubs.

“I’d like to know what service is being used and if it is even required,” Jackson said, noting she would like to see how it compares with costs and benefits of police work done in Delta or other Metro municipalities. “How many severe incidents have taken place where you need a uniformed police officer?”

2. An unlikely, but welcome supporter, in the fight against Transit Police waste is Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson. From the Huffington Post:

Gregor Robertson said he wants to see TransLink focus on transportation rather than transit policing, according to News 1130.

"We have great police forces here in Metro Vancouver and perhaps we should be using them instead of having a whole different force that’s more expensive to run," he told the radio station.

3. TransLink is ripping down a Pitt Meadows sound wall (along the route of the Golden Ears Bridge) just three years after installing it. Neighbours told them years ago the wall would be inadequate at buffering sound – and they were right. Cost to taxpayers: $817,000. Hopefully they get it right this time. Great quote from Pitt Meadows Mayor Deb Walters:

“I am very frustrated that they are ripping it down. Here's a perfectly good wall and it's going to be destroyed. It's just roll the windows down and throw the money out of the window and we'll build a new one. It's very frustrating, especially when we talk about finding funding for TransLink.”

4. Apparently Port Moody Mayor Mike Clay is boycotting TransLink mayors meetings – even as construction on the Evergreen Line gets underway. Classic: I got my toy, now I’m going home. Hey, Your Worship: your residents pay you to stay in the conversation – even when it frustrates you.

5. Finally, a retired Vancouver cop named Bob Cooper made a lame attempt to defend Transit Police on his blog last week. Let’s break down his argument:

Bob says: “Then I saw this item Local mayors questioning efficiency of transit police, which says local Mayors are questioning the efficiency of the Transit Police along with its very existence, but the only armchair expert identified and quoted was Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson.  As critics go, I’d lump him in with Eby & Bateman except that his role as Chair of the Vancouver Police Board might cause some to believe that he actually knows about, you know, police stuff.”

I can’t tell you how thrilled the Vancouver City Hall types must be to think Gregor is lumped in with me.

Bob says: “While I can’t argue that the failure to install turnstiles in the first place was lunacy, almost every other transit system in the world has fare gates but also has their own police force and their riders feel much safer for having them.”

True, no fare gates was lunacy. But no other Canadian transit system has their own police force. Which is why he has to go to New York City for his next point:

Bob says: “The City of New York had separate police departments for Transit and Housing both of which were absorbed into the NYPD in 1995 but the NYPD still maintained Transit and Housing as specialized bureaus which have their own command structures and detective squads and are very proactive in protecting their patrons.”

Hmmm, NYC vs. Vancouver. NYC: 8.25 million people. Vancouver: 2.1 million. NYC: 656 miles of revenue subway track. Vancouver: 43 miles. Here’s a much more realistic comparison: Canadian transit systems. Edmonton PD’s review of our Transit Police: “The inefficiencies in this model are quite obvious… This type of police service designation will not likely ever be repeated in the Province.”

Bob says: “Under a regional police force it might be a different story but given the political fight against regionalization, it doesn’t take a genius to know that with 6 different cities, 6 different mayors, and 6 different police departments involved, the transit system would be sucking the hind tit as far as policing goes no matter what promises are made.”

Conveniently, Bob ignores the fact you would still have Transit Security and SkyTrain personnel throughout the system, acting as a set of eyes and ears for police and calling them in as much as necessary. Or is Bob claiming that cops ignore crimes and calls that are inconvenient to tackle?

Bob says: “While critics talk about efficiencies, I’d point out that Transit hires a number of retiring cops from city police departments and the RCMP every year.  Not only do they save on the expense of recruiting and training but they get the bonus of decades of police experience and that’s a benefit you can’t put a price on.”

Actually, we have put a price on it: the average Transit cop gets $98,000 a year in salary – and investigates less than 10 serious or property crime files a YEAR.