LA Metro Implements Multi-Layered Approach to Enhance Public Safety Amidst Growing Concerns

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority is taking a multi-layered approach to enhance public safety. The plan includes hiring 48 new transit security officers, increasing the number of unarmed Metro Ambassadors, improving use of security cameras, adding homeless outreach, drug addiction and crisis intervention teams, and implementing bias-free policing and public analytics policies.

In response to growing concerns over public safety, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) has implemented a multi-layered approach to enhance public safety. The plan includes hiring 48 new transit security officers and deploying nearly 200 unarmed Metro Ambassadors to trains and buses.

The Metro Board of Directors’ decision to increase the number of transit security officers is part of the agency’s efforts to advance its public safety plan, which aims to make the system safer through a layered, “human-centered” approach. In addition to the new personnel, Metro is working with the city and county of Los Angeles to add homeless outreach, drug addiction and crisis intervention teams, and improve the use of security cameras, lighting and more frequent cleaning of stations and vehicles.

To ensure consistency with its public safety mission and values adopted by the board in 2021, the agency has also approved new bias-free policing and public analytics policies, including a revised customer code of conduct. These policies are meant to set clear expectations and standards to help Metro eliminate potential bias in the way the transit system is patrolled. Previously, Metro found evidence that suggested racial bias might have been a factor in citations given to riders.

“It is important that we’re finally going to have a team of transit security officers who are dedicated to our buses and are actually riding them alongside our passengers,” said County Supervisor Janice Hahn, second vice chair of the Metro board, in a statement. “Most of Metro’s consistent transit riders take the bus and they deserve a safe and comfortable ride.”

According to Metro, the new security officer positions are of significant need as the agency reported 158 assaults on bus operators in 2022, an increase from 115 in 2021. The permanent bus riding team created through the funding approved by the board will be deployed to specific lines with high frequencies of public safety issues, with a primary objective of deterring bus operator assaults and code of conduct violations.

Jacquelyn Dupont-Walker, Metro’s first vice chair of the board, said in a statement that the new policies establish clear expectations and standards for fair and unbiased policing, reinforcing the importance of treating all individuals with respect and dignity.

“All of these initiatives build upon work we have been doing over the last year to put our public safety plan into action,” said Stephanie Wiggins, Metro’s chief executive officer, in a statement. “This plan utilizes proactive response, strategic enforcement and equitable rule compliance, and is key to maintaining public safety for our customers.”

While acknowledging that there is still much work to be done, Metro is taking important steps to ensure a safer and more comfortable transit experience for its riders.