Saskatoon Fire’s support workers are not afraid to ride the bus: spokesman

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A Saskatoon fire department spokesman says fire community support workers who were hired this year to improve safety on the public transit system have not expressed fears about their work.

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The president of Amalgamated Transit Union local 615 said this week that he’d been told the support workers were “actually afraid to ride the bus” due to escalating disturbances and violence.

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The ATU does not represent the support workers, who are employed by the fire department.

Rielly Knock, director of community relationships for the fire department, said he hadn’t heard of the issues described by ATU local 615 president Darcy Pederson.

Knock said he has been managing the support workers since September and works closely with them.

“I had spoken with the staff to see if there was anything I was missing in terms of communication or if there was anything happening on buses that I wasn’t aware of, and nobody was able to point to any specific instances,” Knock said.

The work the team has been doing is very similar to the role they played when the program was under a different name, Community Support Officers, and a different managing organization, Knock said.

The number of staff in the program has doubled, and their hours of operation have increased from five days a week to seven days a week, he added.

Knock said part of their mandate is to focus on the business improvement districts and address minor disturbances like public intoxication, suspicious persons and wellness checks. Much of that work includes trying to de-escalate situations, while also trying to connect people with the appropriate resources if needed.

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When it comes to monitoring transit, Knock said they’ve identified the bus routes with the highest rates of incidents and the support workers will target those buses and terminals “so that we’re being as effective as possible.”

Monthly meetings are held between the fire department, Transit and other stakeholders in the program, Knock said.

“Part of the discussion is around the safety of the employees and making sure they have the right training to do their jobs.”

Knock said he has experience with the RCMP and he’s ensuring the support workers have the proper training to do their jobs effectively.

“A majority of the employees that we have come in with some background related to policing or justice studies. It’s quite a specialized skillset.”

Their training includes crisis intervention, recognition of emotionally disturbed persons, defensive tactics, first aid, CPR and naloxone training, he added.

Knock said discussions are ongoing about whether the program is the appropriate level of support for transit staff and customers, but the consensus right now is that it’s effective.

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“In nearly 90 per cent of the calls for service that the Fire Community Support Team has had since they’ve come over to the fire department, we’ve not had to involve anyone else.”

If police are needed for an incident, response times for officers are averaging eight minutes, he said.

“I think we’ve got the right resources in place to do the job.”

He suggested more education and outreach are needed to give people a better idea of what the support workers are doing.

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