Transit police officers start at higher wage rate than other rookie cops

City and RCMP forces on a campaign to recruit rookie officers are finding themselves competing against TransLink, which pays its police service higher starting wages.

While TransLink overpays its beginners, it underpays its more senior members, a human resources manager told a TransLink board meeting Monday.

Vancouver director Peter Ladner disagreed with the approach, saying it’s driving up the cost of policing.

Despite the higher starting pay, transit police recruiters have had trouble hiring new officers fast enough. The force is behind schedule on its recruitment drive, which calls for the present 100 officers and staff to rise to 161 this year.

It’s also predicted a further 44 officers will be needed in 2009 to patrol the Canada Line when it starts running from Richmond to Vancouver.

Other transit policing news:

INVISIBLE OFFICERS?

TransLink’s police are facing complaints they concentrate too heavily on the Vancouver-to-New Westminster section of the SkyTrain line to the exclusion of other areas.

Surrey Coun. Barbara Steele said she gets complaints that TransLink cops simply aren’t on the trains on the Surrey section of the Expo Line.

“I ride the SkyTrain all the time and I just don’t see the officers anywhere,” Steele said at Monday’s TransLink meeting.

Maple Ridge Mayor Gord Robson said two recently retired RCMP officers in Maple Ridge have joined TransLink. One wanted to work in Maple Ridge, where there are no transit police, which led Robson to ask why they don’t patrol the bus loop outside Haney Place Mall.

A Greater Vancouver Transportation Authority Police Service spokesman said officers only patrol bus loops at SkyTrain stations but the force is working on a strategic plan on how it will extend its reach.

BIG ARRESTS

Tickets for fare evasion, illegal liquor or panhandling made up nearly 90% of the incidents transit police handled last year.

But the year-end statistics presented to TransLink Monday show the newly organized force also dealt with 2,300 criminal or drug offences in their first full year of action – ranging from possession of marijuana or weapons to assault and robbery.

And the GVTA Police Service last year made more than 600 arrests of suspects wanted by RCMP or municipal police, including:

• A suspect who failed to present a valid fare at Stadium station who fled, was arrested and then found to be wanted for second-degree murder in Toronto.

• A suspect in a drive-by shooting in Abbotsford who RCMP traced to his Burnaby home and then to the 22nd Street SkyTrain station. The Mounties called TransLink police, who helped make the arrest.

• Officers checked a man near Surrey Central SkyTrain station and found he had a scrap of paper that appeared to be the start of a robbery note. He was turned over to RCMP, who linked the man to six armed robberies.

• A Burnaby home invasion victim spotted the perpetrator at Metrotown station and contacted RCMP; the Mounties called TransLink’s officers, who made the arrest.

Officials say the armed service’s expanded mandate – which allows them to leave TransLink property, make arrests for crimes that didn’t happen on the system and make arrests on behalf of other agencies – has helped plug a major gap in regional policing previously exploited by criminals.