The TTC will use drones to monitor World Cup crowds
Drone surveillance will also be deployed to monitor some subway yards
The Toronto Transit Commission will use drone surveillance to monitor World Cup events this summer, and will use the same technology to monitor subway stations for criminal activity.
The transit agency’s tethered drone initiative will give the TTC a “live view of crowd conditions” and “enable real-time responses to congestion,” the transit agency announced in a media release.
Related: Toronto police have seized $3.5 million in counterfeit sports merchandise ahead of the World Cup
On match days, the drones will deploy from the Fleet Street Transit Hub near Fort York Boulevard and Lake Shore Boulevard West. In addition, drones will be used to watch the Davisville, Greenwood and Kipling subway yards, to “detect and deter security issues, including graffiti and property damage.” They will be monitored by the TTC’s Transit Control Centre.
“The world is coming to Toronto, and we are making sure that we are ready to welcome them,” TTC chair Jamaal Myers said in the release. “These new programs strengthen the TTC’s existing safety measures, and we will continue exploring additional ways to ensure customers feel comfortable and confident on the system.”
Related: Just 64 per cent of riders are satisfied with TTC service
Carly Lewis is a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times and the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Wired, Interview Magazine, Pitchfork, Elle, and Maclean’s, where she is a contributing editor. Her work has been recognized by the National Magazine Awards and the Digital Publishing Awards. She reports on city life, culture—including what people do online—politics, art and crime. She received the Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award for “The Murder of Ashley Wadsworth,” an investigative feature about a Canadian teenager who was killed by a man she met on social media, published by Maclean’s.
