Major Crime on Toronto’s Public Transit Up Despite Increased Police Presence

Police officers are seen on the platform as people wait for a subway train inside a TTC station in downtown Toronto, April 1, 2023. (The Canadian Press/Cole Burston)

Initiatives introduced by the city of Toronto and the Toronto Transit Commission have done little to stop major crime on public transit and increase rider confidence, according to data shared by the city on June 12.

Major crime incidents—defined by Toronto police as assault, sexual assault, robbery, shootings, and other violent crimes—were up more than 24 percent on all Toronto transit systems since January 2023. There were also 220 incidents of major crime in May, an increase from 177 in January.

TTC customer satisfaction with personal safety fell to 54 percent in May, down from 67 percent in January.

The data follows reports of several violent and apparent random attacks on riders of Toronto’s transit system in early 2023, which led city officials to add 80 additional “highly visible” police officers to patrol the systems during rush hour.

Nevertheless, episodes of violence against passengers have been trending up for more than a year. In February 2022, a report released by the TTC showed there were 1,068 violent incidents against passengers in 2022, compared to 734 in 2021. In 2018, there were just 679.

Despite the June 12 data showing a rise in major crime on Toronto’s transit, city officials pointed out that overall offences committed against TTC customers have fallen by 32 percent since January. According to that statistic, the rate of offences against TTC riders was 1.82 per million customers in May, down from 2.70 in January.

That metric, which includes broader offences such as harassment, found that the rate of offences against TTC employees also fell from 8.68 per million in January to 8.39 in May.