Texting Transit Police

Last February we hosted Chief Officer Ward Clapham of the South Coast British Columbia Transportation Authority Police Service (TransLink Police). It was a great presentation and you can look at it in an earlier post, but I wanted to highlight something very exciting. During our discussion with Chief Officer Clapham I mentioned that when people are breaking the law, drinking beer, or causing general trouble on transit, I don’t feel comfortable getting up and pressing the “Alarm Strip”, calling 911, or using an emergency phone. We talked about how texting would be a great, discrete way to alert the authorities. Well imagine my surprise when I read the following from Jeff Nagel at Black Press:

Transit riders intimidated by a SkyTrain car full of hooligans now have a new, more discreet way of summoning help.

Passengers can now text from their cellphones to BCTIP 274637 to alert Transit Police.