Metro - File #: 2021-0190

• File #: 2021-0190
• Type: Motion / Motion Response
• Status: Passed
• File created: 3/25/2021
• In control: Board of Directors - Regular Board Meeting
• On agenda: 3/25/2021
• Final action: 3/25/2021
• Title: WE, THEREFORE, MOVE that the Board direct the Chief Executive Officer to: A. Include in the FY22 budget at least $40 million for the following initiatives, consistent with the Equity Platform and the Customer Experience Plan: 1. Public Safety: a. $20 million for a transit ambassador program that provides staffed presence at Metro facilities and on Metro vehicles and offers riders assistance and connections to resources, modeled after the S.F. BART program. b. $1 million for elevator attendants at stations. c. $1 million for a flexible dispatch system that enables response by homeless outreach workers, mental health specialists, and/or unarmed security ambassadors in appropriate situations. d. $5 million for Call Point Security Project Blue light boxes recommended by Women and Girls Governing Council to improve security on the BRT and rail system. e. Funds to initiate a study to develop recommendations to prevent intrusion onto Metro rail rights-of-way, including but not limited t...
• Sponsors: Board of Directors - Regular Board Meeting
• Indexes: Contracts, Customer Experience Plan, Eric Garcetti, Hilda Solis, Holly J. Mitchell, Homeless Outreach, Jacquelyn Dupont-Walker, Janice Hahn, Law enforcement, Metro Transit Ambassadors, Mike Bonin, Motion / Motion Response, Partnerships, Police, Program, Public Safety Advisory Committee, Safety, Safety and security, Security, Transit safety
• Related files: 2022-0399, 2022-0497, 2022-0054, 2021-0234, 2021-0137

Date	Action By	Action	Result
3/25/2021	Board of Directors - Regular Board Meeting

Meeting_Body
REGULAR BOARD MEETING
MARCH 25, 2021

Preamble
Motion by:

DIRECTORS BONIN, GARCETTI, MITCHELL, HAHN, DUPONT-WALKER, AND SOLIS

Related to Item 26: Transit Law Enforcement Services

Investment in Alternatives to Policing

In June 2020, the Board voted to embark on a process to reimagine public safety on Metro in response to demonstrations for racial justice and a national conversation about the appropriate role of police in our society and the particular threats faced by Black people during interactions with law enforcement. The Board's mandate was for the agency to work in partnership with community leaders to re-envision transit safety and community-based approaches to policing leading up to and as part of the 2022 renewal of the multiagency police contract. Metro has now established a Public Safety Advisory Committee (PSAC) to formalize this partnership. PSAC will create a space where community leaders work in partnership with Metro staff, including bus and rail operators, on the future of public safety on the Metro system.

Last month, a proposal to increase Metro's law enforcement contract by $111 million sparked further attention to Metro's considerable spending on policing and the relative lack of investment in alternative public safety strategies. Last month's recommendation provided at least a year for PSAC to develop and finalize its recommendations. The current proposal would greatly accelerate the pace of work for the newly formed PSAC, with recommendations now due by the end of the year in order to begin implementation by January 2022.

Standing up a new model of public safety will take time, including identifying funding and beginning to staff up new initiatives. To jump-start this acceleration, the Board should proactively set aside resources now in support of PSAC's work. These early actions are consistent with and build on Metro's Customer Experience Plan and the Understanding How Women Travel Study. Acting now will allow Metro to ...