Meeting_Body
OPERATIONS, SAFETY AND CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE COMMITTEE
OCTOBER 15, 2020
Subject
SUBJECT: MONTHLY UPDATE ON TRANSIT SAFETY AND SECURITY PERFORMANCE
Action
ACTION: RECEIVE AND FILE
Heading
RECOMMENDATION
Title
RECEIVE AND FILE Transit Safety and Security Report
Issue
ISSUE
This report reflects August 2020 performance data as reported under the transit policing deployment strategy which is a combination of in-house fare compliance officers, private security for fixed assets and a multi-agency law enforcement deployment strategy by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD), and Long Beach Police Department (LBPD). In addition, the report highlights initiatives from the System Security and Law Enforcement department and its efforts to create a safer environment for Metro employees and a safer experience for Metro customers.
BACKGROUND
The System Security and Law Enforcement (SSLE) department entered into a multi-agency policing partnership in 2017 to increase the number of police on the Metro system to provide a greater, more visible “felt presence” of police to help deter criminal activity on Metro buses and trains.
Discussion
DISCUSSION
LAW ENFORCEMENT CONTRACT COMPLIANCE
SSLE’s Compliance group continues, and remains, fully committed to ensure that Metro is receiving the transit law enforcement services it is paying for and although, subsequent testing of the Mobile Phone Validator (MPV) dashboard has shown uneven to subpar results, SSLE staff is working on multiple pilot projects to validate which officers logged into the MPV application and to view real-time video footage of their locations.
• Starting September 15, 2020 use an alternative feature from the Mobile Device Manager (MDM) system and compare the data with the submitted law enforcement weekly schedules. The intent of this pilot is to validate which officers logged into the MPV application, at what time, and at which point they logged off.
• Starting October 1, 2020, utilizing the Lex-Ray service contract to view real-time video footage. The intent is to validate officer locations.
SSLE staff believes these pilot projects are worthy of contract compliance and accountability, and intents to update the Board on progress or setbacks during the November Board Report.
METRO TRANSIT SECURITY DEPARTMENT
Metro Transit Security (MTS) is in the process of revising all of its policies and procedures. This will be accomplished over the next 90 days. In addition, MTS is in the process of adding to the training cadre to expand the in-service training of the security officers and supervision. We have worked with the Chief Civil Rights Officer and staff to remodel our Implicit Bias training.
We have also partnered with LAPD on a series of supervisory training on the overall process for investigating Use of Force and personnel complaint investigations. The first training module was Use of Force Investigations and was conducted on September 17, 2020. The goal is to ensure MTS supervisors are conducting thorough transparent investigations.
Training
• Implicit Bias Training - The first 2-hour training session was completed on September 10, 2020 with positive feedback from a group of 9 Transit Security staff and Lieutenants. Plans on how to schedule the rollout to the rest of the department should be finalized by the end of September.
• Safety for Maintenance & Engineering Teams - Leticia Solis, DEO Wayside Systems and Ron Dickerson, DEO SSLE, approved the presentation. Dates for initial 45-minute training sessions have been set for September 22, 23, and 29, 2020. There will be 30 Wayside Traction Power Systems team members trained in these groups (10 per session). The first two trainings went very well and positive comments were received. We have received additional requests for the training and will continue to provide.
Calls for Service KPI
To increase accountability and performance, Metro Transit Security implemented key performance indicators to measure response times for calls for service. Calls for service were developed and categorized into three types:
• Routine: calls for service that are non-criminal, non-violent, non-life threatening, and non-hazardous. These services often require an officer’s presence, a Metro facility location check, a welfare check, revenue key calls at divisions, writing minor crime or miscellaneous incident reports and other similar tasks completed daily by Transit Security Officers.
• Priority: calls for service that require an officer to respond without delay. Often, depending on the circumstances, a quick response could minimize the situation from escalating.
• High priority: calls for service that indicate a serious crime is in progress, or has just occurred, and the suspect(s) are still in the vicinity. Additionally, included are life-threatening and life-saving incidents, hazardous incidents and other major safety incidents.
To ensure our reporting and tracking procedures are accurate, we are in the process of reviewing how calls for service are documented, reported, and tracked. We will have the first report of Metro Transit Security response times available for the November board report and every report after.
BUS OPERATOR ASSAULTS
In August, there were a total of (10) assaults on bus operators, with (6) assaults occurring in LASD’s jurisdiction and (4) assaults occurring in LAPD’s jurisdiction. Nine assaults occurred on the bus system on different lines and (1) assault occurred on the C/Green Line. Eight of the suspects were males and (1) of the suspects was a female. Three suspects were arrested, and four suspects were homeless.
LASD deploys their bus units based on trends, patterns, higher crime rates, quality of life issues and high ridership areas. LASD uses information from their crime analyst, deputy personnel, Metro personnel, and the public to determine what bus lines or areas need to be addressed by our bus deputies.
LAPD utilizes similar methods as mentioned by LASD and they deploy resources to various locations, different dates and times to address these issues as well as complaints from Bus Operations. LAPD deploys resources for OWL service as well as early morning Orange line service.
Both agencies continue to work on this extremely important issue.
REGIONAL LAW ENFORCEMENT MEETING
Metro is working with all law enforcement in the region to ensure accurate crime reporting of incidents that occur on the Metro system. on September 16, 2020, SSLE met with the Regional Law Enforcement Working Group (RLEWG). Topics covered included: SSLE Structure, Crime Reporting, Resource Sharing, Safety through Environmental Design, Homelessness, Campaign Zero, Metro Board Motions 35 and 37, and the 2022 Law Enforcement Contract.
EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT COVID-19 RESPONSE
The Emergency Management Department (EMD) has continued to support Metro’s Incident Management Team in the Agency’s response to COVID-19. EMD activated Metro’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC) starting March 10, 2020, and began coordination of daily Command Staff meetings, intelligence briefings and communication with local government and transit partners on regional response, best practices and real-time lessons learned during this incident.
The Emergency Operations Center remains activated in a monitoring phase for COVID-19 Response and Recovery. This phase includes the continuation of the weekly Command Staff Meetings, twice weekly Public Health and Intelligence Briefs and maintaining a 24-hour duty officer to respond to employee inquiries.
In September EMD also facilitated Metro’s observance of National Preparedness Month, providing resources and tools for Metro employees to better prepare for natural and human-made disasters. Metro’s Employee Personal Preparedness Guide was updated with pandemic preparedness information and disseminated to all Metro employees. In collaboration with Communications weekly emails, with specific preparedness themes, were distributed to all personnel to encourage them to develop a family emergency plan, create emergency kits and prepare for various types of disaster incidents.
BASELINE ASSESSMENT OF SECURITY ENHANCEMENT (BASE)
Metro has partnered with the Transportation Security Agency (TSA) to undergo a Baseline Assessment of Security Enhancement (BASE) in October 2020.
The BASE program is designed to establish a security standard for mass transit rail and bus, and passenger rail system security programs and assess process. The BASE program is designed to meet requirements identified in the 9/11 Commission Act’s security assessment section, which directs the TSA to identify critical assets, infrastructure and systems and their vulnerabilities and assist bus and public transportation authorities to address their security programs. This voluntary review of transit agency security programs focuses on multiple categories identified by the transit community as fundamentals for a sound transit security program.
The BASE review includes a comprehensive evaluation of program elements, which include the transit agencies security plans, security awareness and emergency response training, drills/exercise programs, public outreach efforts, and background check programs.
HOMELESS OUTREACH SERVICES
Operation “Shelter the Unsheltered”
PATH Outreach Data: August 1 - August 31, 2020
• 12 individuals were permanently housed
• 298 individuals have been permanently housed since May 2017
• 39 motel rooms were secured to house 58 homeless persons
Total Motel Expense: $70,084.31
The table below shows that costs have increased dramatically with the onset of COVID (thus PATH’s budget modification at the end of fiscal year 2020). Much of the increase is related to the concerted effort to off-load individuals and connect them to services.
There are additional costs involved placing individuals in motels (as opposed to shelters). Those costs include food support, transportation costs, staff time to continue case management (in shelters individuals are connected to case management through those on-site programs), etc. These factors lead to significantly increased costs.
SSLE is working with Federal Judge Carter on identifying 100 beds that come with services within three different Council Districts. We will be able to report of the progress of this effort for the November Board report.
The Dream Center Outreach
o July 10 - August 31, 2020: 468 contacts
L.A. DOOR Outreach
o July 8 - August 31, 2020: 348 contacts
4-DAY HOMELESS RAIL & BUS COUNT
• A practice run for the 4-day homeless count on rail and bus will be conducted the week of September 28th. We have identified 60 SSLE and law enforcement personnel to conduct the count on rail starting Oct 5, 2020. The bus count will be conducted by Bus Operations personnel and SSLE personnel during the same dates and time frames.
• The results of this count will be provided on the next Board report.
SEXUAL HARASSMENT INITIATIVES
PEACE OVER VIOLENCE PERFORMANCE AUGUST 2020 METRICS
|
Performance Measure |
Number Served |
|
Total Sexual Harassment Cases Contacting POV |
5 |
|
Total Cases of Metro Located Sexual Harassment Contacting POV |
1 |
|
Total Number of Metro Riders Requesting Counseling Services |
1 |
|
Total Number of Police Reports Filed or Intended to File |
1 |
|
Total Number of Active Cases |
2 |
On July 1, 2020, SSLE launched its zero tolerance Sexual Harassment campaign. MTS and our law enforcement partners have been trained and are responding to sexual harassment related calls. We are also responding to, and tracking incidents involving rape, sexual battery, lewd conduct and indecent exposure.
There were 19 calls for service involving sexual harassment or assault in August 2020 which were broken down as follows.
|
Incident Type: August 2020 Totals |
|
|
LAPD |
LASD |
LBPD |
MTS |
DEPT. TOTAL |
|
Sexual Harassment |
0 |
N/A |
N/A |
4 |
4 |
|
Sexual Battery |
4 |
N/A |
N/A |
3 |
4 |
|
Lewd Conduct |
1 |
N/A |
N/A |
5 |
6 |
|
Indecent Exposure |
0 |
N/A |
N/A |
2 |
2 |
|
Rape |
0 |
N/A |
N/A |
0 |
0 |
|
TOTAL |
5 |
N/A |
N/A |
14 |
19 |
Next_Steps
NEXT STEPS
Staff will continue to monitor our law enforcement partners, private security, and Transit Security performance, monitor crime stats, and adjust deployment as necessary.
Attachments
ATTACHMENTS
Attachment A - System-Wide Law Enforcement Overview August 2020
Attachment B - MTA Supporting Data August 2020
Attachment C - Transit Police Summary August 2020
Attachment D - Homeless Update August 2020
Attachment E - Monthly, Bi-Annual, Annual Comparison August 2020
Prepared_by
Prepared by: Jimmy Abarca, Senior Administrative Analyst, System Security and Law Enforcement, (213) 922-2615
Reviewed_by
Reviewed by: Bob Green, Chief System Security and Law Enforcement Officer, (213) 922-4811
