One day after Metro’s Board of Directors had an emotional discussion and took steps to improve public safety across its transit system, Los Angeles City Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez introduced a motion Friday seeking accountability from the agency.
During Friday’s City Council meeting,
Rodriguez’s motion asks that the Los Angeles Police Department report to the council’s Public Safety Committee on crime statistics on Metro trains, buses, platforms and at stations, starting from 2017. She also wants a demographic breakdown of all victims who have been attacked or victimized while traveling on Metro’s system.
Rodriguez, who chairs the Public Safety Committee and represents northeast San Fernando Valley neighborhoods, also said she wants to better understand the scale of deployment of Metro’s ambassador program, and how it works in partnership with LAPD officers, and other law enforcement agencies.
“Metro riders and transit operators are hard working individuals, who rely on public transit to make an honest living. A public transit system not grounded in providing a safe environment for both its riders and operators is not a functional transit system,” Rodriguez said in a statement.
She added, “I introduced this motion to begin inserting our communities into the conversation and to demand a safer system that prioritizes their needs and experience.”
According to the councilwoman, Metro’s current Board of Directors “lacks the geographic and ethnic representation aligned with the ridership.”
“Representing a community that relies on this system because they have no alternative, I am calling on Metro’s public safety responders to report to the council,” Rodriguez said in a statement. “Metro is a public agency funded by taxpayers and needs to answer how they will increase public safety and accountability for its users.”
On Thursday, Metro’s Board of Directors deliberated for about an hour on ways to improve public safety following the death of a woman on the agency’s B (Red) Line and a series of violent attacks on bus drivers. Ultimately, Metro declared a public safety emergency in order to expedite the procurement of safety barriers for more than 2,000 buses.
Additionally, the Board of Directors approved a motion introduced by board member and L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger to quickly explore solutions to bolster public safety — again, prompted by the death of 66-year-old Mirna Soza Arauz, who was stabbed in an apparently unproved attack earlier this week on the B Line in Studio City.
Barger said her motion calls for the agency to secure station gate entrances and exits, analyze data on violent crimes — including those by re-offenders — occurring on the system, and speed up pilot solutions at some of the most “challenging” stations.
Among other measures the Board of Directors called for were increasing installation of security cameras, implementing facial recognition technology, and using other anti-crime technology. The agency may also look into ways of banning problematic individuals from Metro altogether.
“We have received reports highlighting improvements since last year on crime stats and over other key areas,” Barger said. “But the reality is that we are fighting a battle with one hand tied behind our back.”
Metro staff are expected to present a report back within 60 days or sooner.
“Metro riders deserve to be safe on the system, and we will continue to do all that,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who chairs the Board of Directors, said during Thursday’s meeting. “We can keep not only our riders, but also our operators, safe, and I know that as a board, we will step up to this challenge because that’s what frankly the people of Los Angeles deserve.”