Five people remain on the loose – after the pepper-spraying of a bus driver in New Westminster last night.
Transit police have taken over the investigation – but as it turns out, in most cases, the force is rarely first on the scene.
It typically falls to jurisdictional police forces to respond – due to a simple lack of resources.
Transit Police spokesperson Anne Drennan says there are only 167 officers – for 1800-square kilometres of territory.
“There are limitations. There aren’t that many of us for starters, and we don’t have many vehicles and we don’t work on a mobile basis, in vehicles on patrol.”
And while Translink has more than 1400 busses on the road at a time – only 3 or 4 security cars may be on-shift for the whole region.
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