Meeting_Body
REVISED
OPERATIONS, SAFETY AND CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE COMMITTEE
NOVEMBER 18, 2021
Preamble
Motion by:
DIRECTORS BONIN, MITCHELL, HAHN, SOLIS, and DUPONT-WALKER
Related to Item 25: Transit Law Enforcement Services
Commitment to Reimagining Public Safety
In the summer of 2020, the killing of George Floyd and the nationwide demonstrations for racial justice that followed sparked a national conversation about the appropriate role of police in our society and the particular threats faced by Black people and other people of color during interactions with law enforcement. Here in Los Angeles County, those demonstrations renewed attention on longstanding issues of bias and disproportionate enforcement faced by Black and brown communities. Just this month the Los Angeles Times exposed a pattern of disproportionate stops and searches of Latino and Black bike riders by the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department in unincorporated areas. Earlier coverage has documented a similar pattern for traffic stops by the Los Angeles Police Department in South Los Angeles. On Metro's own system, fare and code of conduct enforcement has also disproportionately targeted Black and Latino riders.
In June 2020, the Board voted to embark on a process to reimagine public safety on Metro. Metro has since taken significant steps toward this reimagining, including the creation of the Public Safety Advisory Committee (PSAC) to advise the agency on an appropriate reallocation of resources and the subsequent approval in March 2021 of over $40 million to launch alternative approaches to public safety on the Metro system.
This month, Metro staff is bringing a recommendation to the Board to extend the current police contracts in order to allow more time for PSAC to reenvision the role of law enforcement as part of an overall new approach to public safety on the Metro system. PSAC's new Mission & Values statement is a concrete first step toward this new direction, but much more needs to be ...
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