Public transit passengers in Metro Vancouver sent 70 per cent more text messages to police in 2025 compared to 2024.
“Very encouraging to see that,” Chief Suzanne Muir told the TransLink Board during its March 25 quarterly meeting. “There’s three key areas where we’re seeing people reaching out,” she said. “Number one is disturbance-related calls that were able to have members attend to respond. Secondly, passengers that may require medical attention and then third non-police-related matters however that linked to the enterprise, and we were able to pass those over to our appropriate transit partners.”
Muir suggested this is partly attributable to the 87-77-77 texting publicity campaign. Muir said it continues to be promoted as a means by which riders can “discreetly contact Transit Police when safety concerns arise while on transit.”
Twenty one per cent of last year’s conversations were converted to police files, fewer than 32.5 per cent in 2024.
“This may reflect that transit users find the text service easy to use for non-police concerns,” Muir said.
The board heard that in 2025 the Transit Police dealt with 12,193 police files – a 10 per cent decrease compared to 13,501 in 2024.
Moreover, ridership “boarded passenger” levels dropped by two per cent to 396,352,322 in 2025 compared to 404,203,512 in 2024.
“The 2025 results showed that the rate of crimes against persons per 100,000 boarded passengers was the same as 2024,” Muir noted. “The actual count of crimes against persons decreased by two per cent. The rate of crimes against property per 100,000 boarded passengers was down two per cent in 2025 when compared to 2024.”
Further, Muir reported, the actual count of crimes against property was down four per cent, the number of sexual offence files in 2025 decreased by 16 per cent compared to 2024 and the rate of sex crimes per 100,000 boarded passengers decreased by four per cent comparatively.
Also in 2025 the Transit Police recorded an 18 per cent drop in apprehensions under Section 28 of the Mental Health Act compared to 2024. These are circumstances where someone is deemed to pose a danger to themselves or other people.
Muir said those who were apprehended were taken to a hospital for assessment where 79 per cent were “certified, held, or voluntary admitted once at hospital.”