Los Angeles Metro considers creating its own police force

Austin Turner and Annie Rose Ramos

8 mins ago

In light of the increasing number of high-profile outbreaks of violence on buses and trains across Los Angeles, the Metro board will consider proposals to create its own police force on Thursday.

Metro’s interest in having its own patrol officers comes as security measures have come under increasing scrutiny in recent months.

“First, let me make a very clear statement: The recent increase in violent crime on the subway that we have seen against operators and riders is absolutely unacceptable,” LA Mayor Karen Bass said last month.

The board will hear four different proposals on Thursday and select one of them. If the proposal is approved, it would take the agency about five years to fully implement the new police department, according to KTLA’s Annie Rose Ramos.

“If (Metro accepts a proposal), it is an admission that the status quo will no longer work, because what we are seeing now, these violent incidents … this general sense of fear expressed not only by riders but also by board members,” Ramos said.

In April, Metro board member Kathryn Barger said she would no longer ride the subway alone for fear of violence.

Several people have died in violent incidents involving the metro this year.

Just on Tuesday, a person was stabbed to death in South Los Angeles as she got off a Metro bus. In April, 67-year-old Mirna Soza Arauz was stabbed in the neck on a Metro train in Studio City. Her suspected killer is facing murder charges.

Metro’s current system involves contracting three different law enforcement agencies — the Los Angeles Police Department, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the Long Beach Police Department — to manage the security of its vehicles, but the lack of a centralized entity has led to public safety failures.

These law enforcement contracts cost about $194 million a year. The potential cost of the proposals being heard Thursday ranges from $155 million to $214 million.

The Southern California Rapid Transit District, which became Metro in 1993, operated its own police force from 1978 to 1997. Several major transit agencies in the United States currently operate police departments, such as BART in the Bay Area, MBTA in Massachusetts, and WMATA in Washington DC.