A day in the life of a Transit Peace Officer
Transit Peace Officers are vital in maintaining the safety and security of all Calgary Transit customers and its infrastructure. They are the point of contact for riders, providing information and reassurance: officers respond to all crimes and disorder on transit property.
We got to sit down with one of Calgary Transit’s Peace Officers, Sarah Miller, to ask her about her role.
What’s your day-to-day like?
As a regular-duty Transit Peace Officer assigned to the street, a typical day will start with a team meeting where our team Sergeant updates the team on any relevant information we need for the shift. Typically, that includes details on notable incidents. After that, we are assigned a partner and deployed to cover a quadrant of the CTrain line.
If there are no calls for service, we will visit each station in our quadrant and conduct patrols (at the stations and onboard buses and CTrains). We do this to maintain a visible presence on the system, solve problems proactively, assist transit customers, and take care of situations that call for our intervention.
During our patrols, we also respond to calls for service in our assigned zone. A call for service can include medical emergencies like overdoses or welfare checks, traffic accidents, lost children or property, disruptive passengers, and customer complaints
What’s your most memorable day on the job?
Peace Officers were called to 8th St station for a report of 2 unaccompanied minors on the platform. When we approached the two boys, three and six, they were alone but were able to answer some questions. We found out that they lost their mom at one of the stations and thought she had gotten on a train, so they hopped on the train too.
We brought the boys to our vehicle to stay warm, and it was a fun day for them! We gave them stickers and allowed them to play with some of the equipment in our van. We quickly reunited the family.
How often do you interact with vulnerable people?
We interact with the vulnerable population every day on transit, and we treat them with the same respect we would any other person using transit. Still, sometimes we aren’t equipped to solve their needs. That’s where the Downtown Outreach Addictions Partnership (DOAP) team and Transit Community Outreach Team come in: they connect people with services they need.
All Transit Peace Officers are trained in Resiliency in Policing, certified in Mental Health First Aid, and take Emotional Survival in Law Enforcement.