Los Angeles Metro to form an independent police department amid rise in crime, some fatal

LOS ANGELES, CA - The Los Angeles Metro Board, which oversees mass transportation in Greater LA, unanimously voted Thursday to establish its own police force akin to the MTA, and Port Authority Police in New York City or the BART Police in the San Francisco Bay area.

As reported by Fox News LA, the decision has come following a series of brutal, fatal outbreaks of violence onboard or in proximity to the city's buses and trains. The new department to be christened the Transit Community Public Safety Department (TCPSD) is planned to gradually be stood up over five years, coming fully online in 2029.

Fox reported that between April and May, seven violent attacks have occurred, three of which resulted in fatalities.
 

Metro's Board has approved the proposal to create a Transit Community Public Safety Department (TCPSD). This is a critical step towards ensuring visible, engaged, and community-focused safety on our transit system. Read the full proposal on our blog post: https://t.co/TYZQ5dxXLU pic.twitter.com/64XNUkDycY

— Metro Los Angeles (@metrolosangeles) June 28, 2024

In a blog post pitching the new department to the public, the Metro broke down the justification for the new department into three categories: lack of oversight, lack of consistency, and skyrocketing costs.

Presently, Metro LA is patroled under contract by the LA County Sheriff's Department, the LAPD, and the Long Beach Police Department. The organization explained, "Since 2017, our Office of the Inspector General has been conducting annual assessments of the law enforcement contracts with LASD, LAPD, and LBPD. Oer and over, they’ve found that these models simply don’t provide enough visible presence on buses, trains, and other critical infrastructure locations.

"Moreover, because we can’t monitor and oversee the individuals assigned to our system, we can’t ensure they are fully patrolling it."
 

India Mandelkern, writing for Metro, noted that an independent Metro Police department existed from 1978-1997 and was eventually merged with the LAPD and LA County Sheriff in a merger that "had more to do with politics than the in-house police force’s effectiveness."

Fox LA reported that LA County Sheriff Robert Luna disagreed and expressed misgivings about the formation of a new department on the cusp of LA hosting the Olympics and the (2027) Super Bowl. He also cited concerns about how quickly the department can hire to full staffing.

He told reporters, "As the county sheriff responsible for public safety in this county, I have to make sure that with the World Cup coming in, the Olympics and the (2027) Super Bowl — this is not a time to experiment with new projects. Public safety is too critical to do that with."

The TCPSD will reportedly employ a "zone-based" deployment model familiar to many departments splitting greater LA into six regions where officers will be "responsible for patrolling their assigned zones, riding buses and trains, conducting foot patrols at stations, and engaging with both riders and Metro staff within their assigned stations."

According to the post from Metro LA, the "Enhanced Service Model," approved by the Metro Board, will maintain the current staffing level of 386 law enforcement officers in the field and increase the number of "unarmed, non-law enforcement personnel (TSOs, Ambassadors, homeless outreach, and crisis intervention teams) by 227 to 673."

The budget for the department will also allocate $5 million for "public safety infrastructure improvements at transit stations (CCTV cameras, weapons detection, enhanced fare gates, and more)." Overall the plan will decrease costs from the current multi-agency model at $194 million to $192.6 million.