Toronto·New
As of Monday, select fare inspectors and special constables who work for the TTC will be wearing body-worn cameras, the transit agency says.
20 fare inspectors, 20 special constables to start wearing devices
As of Monday, select fare inspectors and special constables who work for the TTC will be wearing body-worn cameras, the transit agency says.
There will be 20 inspectors and 20 constables wearing the cameras as part of a pilot project, and they are to be activated when workers interact with customers, according to the TTC.
A revised use of force policy is now also in effect, which the TTC says emphasizes “the importance of de-escalation as an alternative to use of force for Special Constables.”
The agency’s board approved the new policies six years after 26 recommendations were made by the city’s ombudsman. Those recommendations stemmed from an incident where a Black teenager was tackled and pinned to the ground by three TTC fare inspectors on a streetcar platform in February 2018.
The TTC is also putting in-car cameras onto 14 special constable vehicles.
Funding for the body-worn camera and in-car camera systems are included in the TTC’s 2023-2032 capital budget, and amounts to a cost of just over $1.2 million.