Violent crime on the Edmonton Transit Service dropped by 47 per cent from August to September. The transit authority presented to city council on Wednesday that ridership has increased, not only from August to September of this year, attributed to back to school, but also on a year-over-year basis.
Edmonton Transit Service report to city council regarding 2023 crime statistics through the month of September, as presented on Wednesday, October 25. Slide taken from page 11 of the report. All stats provided to ETS by Edmonton Police Service.
Violent crime continued a downward trend this year from a high watermark of 43 incidents in January to nine in September, a comparative 21 per cent reduction in the rate of violent crime on the system, and a 47 per cent drop from August to September, per Edmonton Police Service statistics.
“We may see more incidents in the coming months as the weather shifts, and more individuals turn to transit spaces,” director of transit safety at ETS, Duane Hunter said.
“But the drop, particularly around violence, shows the impact we had, using data to target deployments of [Transit Peace Officers],” Hunter said.
The report also states that non-violent crime was down by 36 per cent from August to September, which marks the lowest number of reported non-violent crimes this year. Violent crime is categorised as theft, vandalism, mischief and drug offenses.
The report also indicates that ridership increased in September to 5,060,090 riders, versus 3,915,065 in August. This bump in ridership is in-line with annual back-to-school ridership increases, Hunter said. However, when comparing September 2023 on a year-to-year basis, the month showed a 14 per cent increase versus September 2022.
Watch the meeting on the City of Edmonton’s YouTube page.
