What to Know
- Metro has seen a 65-percent jump in total crime in the first three months of 2024, according to new data.
- A motion will be introduced at Thursday's LA Metro Board to bring back more uniformed officers.
- The move follows a series of violent crimes in recent weeks, including the fatal stabbing of a woman on a B Line train in the Studio City area and a deadly shooting on a bus in Commerce.
A motion will be introduced Thursday at a meeting of Metro leaders aimed at increasing safety to combat a spike in violent crime on Los Angeles' transit system.
The motion will be presented a week after Los Angeles Mayor and Metro Board of Directors Chair Karen Bass said she ordered an immediate surge in law enforcement on Metro trains and buses. Bass said the motion will increased public safety personnel on the system and establish a unified command designed to police the system, which has seen a 65-percent jump in total crime in the first three months of 2024, according to new data.
The plan also requires cellular service is enabled and working in all underground Metro rail stations, on the platforms and during transit throughout the rail system, Bass said.
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The move follows a series of violent crimes connected to the system in recent weeks, including the fatal stabbing of a woman on a B Line train in the Studio City area last month, the shooting death of a passenger on a Metro bus in Commerce and three attacks last week that left three people stabbed and another injured during a robbery.
"The spike in violent crime… has been absolutely unacceptable," Bass said last week.
The latest report on public safety showed between January and March of 2024, there were 1,719 crimes, including non-violent incidents. During the same period in 2023, there were 1,034 reported incidents.
U.S. & World
In a significant shift, Bass publicly acknowledged last week that she did not think the city’s Metro system is safe. Just last month, she touted LA’s public transit system declaring “the Metro is safe” while celebrating an increase in ridership.
When asked Wednesday whether she still thought riding Metro was safe, she responded she did “not feel the same way.”
Metro officials have grappled in recent years over the best way to police the transit system. The agency has generally partnered with the Los Angeles Police Department, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and Long Beach Police Department to police the system.
Metro also opted to vastly expand its use of "ambassadors," who are essentially customer service representatives positioned across the transit system to provide support and information to riders and a resource for people to report maintenance or safety issues. According to Metro's own website, however, the ambassadors "are not security officers and do not replace existing security personnel or law enforcement. Rather, they are an added workforce that collaborates with other Metro departments in order to maintain public safety and help make the system feel safer for our riders."
