The TTC is set to hire more fare inspectors in an effort to crack down on passengers skipping out on paying for their rides.

The agency’s board made the decision at a meeting Wednesday, after a presentation on the latest fare evasion figures.

“I do think that the evasion rate is higher (than reported), and it costs the system dearly,” said Councillor Joe Mihevc (Ward 21 St. Paul’s), who sits on the board and moved the motion for additional officers.

“It corrupts the whole integrity of the system to not have people pay their fares,” he said.

As a result of the vote the TTC could hire as many as 20 new inspectors, to add to its current complement of 69. The additional officers would together cost about $2 million, and would be paid for out of the agency’s existing budget.

At the moment, fare inspectors are primarily deployed on the TTC’s streetcar network. Mike Killingsworth, head of the agency’s enforcement unit, said the extra officers could be used to increase enforcement on the subway system.

Transit inspectors have been under increased scrutiny in recent weeks, after TTC officers and police were involved in a violent takedown of a Black teen on board a streetcar on February 18.

Activist group Jane Finch Action Against Poverty submitted a letter to the board Wednesday asserting anti-Black racism among fare inspectors is “a reality,” and demanding “an end to racial profiling and targeting of racialized and poor communities.”

In response to those concerns, Killingsworth said the agency expects all inspectors to abide by its code of conduct. He said officers receive five days of mental health awareness training supplemented by diversity inclusion training.

“I’m not for one second diminishing the importance or the severity of what the allegations are (in the February 18 incident). However, to put things in perspective, last year alone we did 3.2 million inspections,” he said.

Of those, 13 resulted in formal complaints lodged against the agency, two of which were substantiated, according to Killingsworth.

Mihevc said concerns about unfair targeting of vulnerable populations shouldn’t prevent the TTC from enforcing fare rules. “The answer is not to withdraw fare inspectors, it’s to appropriately train fare inspectors,” he said.

The TTC has steadily ramped up fare enforcement over the past three years as the number of inspectors has grown. In 2015 the agency performed 938,000 inspections and wrote 2,249 tickets in 2015. Last year it performed 3.7 million inspections, and issued 12,312 tickets. The offence comes with a $235 fine.

Killingsworth said the evasion rate on streetcars is 1.8 per cent, but he didn’t have enough information to determine what the system-wide rate is.

The TTC has previously said that fare evasion rate across the whole system is about 2 per cent, which represents roughly $20 million in lost revenue per year.

However, the Star revealed in December that an internal report conducted in 2016 but never made public determined the rate was 4.4 per cent, representing $49 million in forgone revenue.

The TTC has dismissed the 2016 study, which the agency commissioned and paid almost $100,000 for, saying it was not reliable because its methodology was flawed.

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A confidential TTC draft report dated February 2018 and obtained by the Star said that the agency’s revenue control is “poor” and has been degraded by policy changes such as allowing kids 12 and younger to ride free, and all-door boarding on streetcars.

The agency is also in the midst of transitioning from a token- and ticket-based system to the Presto fare card, which Killingsworth acknowledged Wednesday has caused “challenges.”