Metro votes today on inside police force

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) will vote today on an implementation plan to establish an in-house transit police force.

Given the increase in crimes committed in buses and trains in the several cities that Metro serves, the transportation agency has been issuing feasibility reports to study the possibility of creating its own police force. 

On April 22, Mirna Soza Arauz, a 66-year-old woman was stabbed to death on Metro's B (Red) Line in an unprovoked attack. Earlier that month, on April 13, a Metro bus operator was stabbed in the chest in Willowbrook, which later prompted bus drivers to protest safety concerns with a “sick-out”.

This would not be the first time Metro has its own safety department. From 1978 to 1997, Metro and its predecessor, the Southern California Rapid Transit District (SCRTD), which merged into Metro in 1993, operated its own police force.

Currently, Metro contracts with LAPD and the L.A. County Sheriff’s department to coordinate their safety plan. 

In response to how the implementation of an inside police force would affect Metro’s budget, Carlos Rico, senior manager of System Security & Law Enforcement for Metro, told CALÓ News the costs would be very similar or have a slight increase. 

“The bottom line really is that the services that we would get with an in-house department would be much improved,” Rico said. “Versus what we're getting today, specifically, because, again, the training, and the focus would be very transit oriented.”

The focus of Metro’s in-house safety department would focus on what Rico calls “quality of life” which includes no smoking on buses and trains, no loud music to disturb fellow riders, which may not be as much of a concern in other areas but can affect rider’s commute.

“The training would be specific to some of the nuances, some of the differences that are transit specific that we're missing today,” Rico said. “So it would actually be improved [with] more presence on trains, more presence on buses and more of a focus on the issues that are specific to transit versus what you see, you know, in regular city and county policing.”

If the board approves the plan today, it will take five years to establish. Rico said it would start with selecting a chief of police, who would then build the executive team and later on the administrative side.

When asked if recruitment was a concern since LAPD and the Sheriff’s department have struggled with recruitment efforts, Rico said that is a challenge across the board for law enforcement nationwide.

“We believe that we'll take an innovative approach to recruitment, and obviously give a clear indication of what we're looking for and how this position would be different than your traditional policing,” Rico said. 

The public safety department would have sworn police officers that are armed; transit security officers who are unarmed and whose primary functions will be to enforce code of conduct and fares; care-based ambassadors to provide customer service; and homeless engagement and mental health intervention teams.

Sworn officers will also receive additional training that is transit focused, says Rico. 

“On top of the state-mandated post training to become police officers, we're also going to have  additional training that's transit focused for the police officers on customer service, on the transit environment, on the uniqueness and the unique issues that are faced in a transit environment. And then on top of that, you will have the additional training to de-escalate, to understand when somebody's in a mental health crisis and a house crisis, where they can call upon the other resources.”

The plan will be implemented during the 2028 Olympics, but Rico said they will continue forward with working with current law enforcement partners.