The Metro Board of Directors will hold a special workshop today at noon to discuss the performance of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, which is under contract to patrol Metro’s buses, trains, stations and other facilities.
The workshop was prompted by an internal audit of the LASD, which identified a variety of issues ranging from the way that deputies are deployed to fare evasion. This report to the Metro Board by Metro’s Office of the Inspector General covers some of the audit’s findings.
You can listen to the meeting today over the phone by dialing 213-922-6045 or listening online by going to this link once the meeting begins and then selecting the workshop.
Categories: Policy & Funding
One day, within the last two weeks, LASD started asking for our TAP cards as we were exiting the bus–The Silver Line. Luckily, I used my TAP card to pay that afternoon. LASD doesn’t know that you don’t have to pay with a TAP card on the Silver Line. It really looks like there present at the stations are just for show.
In case you have not already heard the fare to ride Metro is going up on September 15, 2014 anyhow.
Metro and the LASD has a lot of deficiencies to correct before they consider any future budget/fare increases. The ‘report’ mentioned in the article is appalling.
The report also finds many Metro employees not doing their job like using the phone for their personal reasons or taking excessive vacation days like the LADWP workers.
Nice to know where our tax dollars are going, huh?
[…] More on Today’s 12Noon Metro Board Sheriff Audit Hearing (The Source) […]
The LA Sheriff’s Dept since it’s contract was approved by MTA has done less and less patroling the Metro system. They have become a laugh because they turn their heads and do nothing. When Metro had their own transit police they did a better job. When I see the deputies hanging around the Metro system I think of them as a waste of taxpayers money.
My opinion is that since it was Metro who had this crazy wild idea of the honor system, it’s them that has to deal with the consequences of fixing it. Whatever they do, don’t expect us riders to pay for it with additional fare increases. We’re the ones who’ve been saying about these out of control fare evasion problems right from the start.
I concur with your reference to this asinine “honor system.” In a meeting I had with Director Gail Harvey, I made mention that LA Metro cannot expect rail riders to be honorable in a nation lead by local, state, and congressional leaders who lack honor themselves. Furthermore, in a later email that requested a refund for services Metrorail failed to render, I commented that the Los Angeles Metrorail System is a dishonorable one itself. Hence, LA Metro cannot expect their riders to be honorable in paying.
There are so many issues that plague the Metrorail system here in Los Angeles that the presence of LASD cannot and will not resolve them. This is particularly true since LASD fails to enforce ALL the regulations of LA Metro (which I am told by several Deputies they are not required to do so by Metro) and occasionally check and cite fare evaders. How can the public respect such fickle authority?!
I must add that speaking and/or emailing Gov. Brown, Mayor/Metro Chair Garcetti, CEO Arthur Leahy, and Director Gail Harvey has been a lost cause. My suggested recommendations, complaints, and opinions have fall upon death ears or have been ignored all together. These elected officials and Metro executives must take ownership for their contribution to Metro’s problems. You cannot build and operate a haphazard system and expect LASD to fix it for you.
I am of the opinion that it is time to go to the media; there is some malfeasance transpiring!
LASD does not seem to be doing a good job. I very rarely see LASD checking people for fares. And also the new gates don’t keep fare evaders out. People can easily pass through the handicap gate without paying. I see many people doing that. And no LASD checks on trains for fare evaders. It is all a failure.
They don’t do they’re job at all. Hell a driver told me what they really do which is sit around and milk the system. They “patrol”?? If they do explain why response times are so f***ng slow and there CONTINUES to be VIOLENCE on the busses and trains. Go back to having LAPD contract the service.
Duh! What did you expect?
If you think the police can magically appear out of thin air like an iPhone app to protect you when the need arises, you’re living in a dream world. The police are only human. They cannot be everywhere all the time 24/7, no matter how much you throw tax dollars at them.
You have to learn how to protect your own self. Learn martial arts for example. It helps you to become stronger both physically and mentally. Even a $10 pepper spray that you can buy at Big 5 Sporting Goods go a long way to protect yourself than nothing.
After all, the old saying goes “when seconds count, the police are only minutes away.”
In that case why do we even need a police force?
The correct answer is to do both. It’s the citizens constitutional right to use self defense when the need arises, so that criminals stay there without escaping or causing a further threat to society until law enforcement arrives and they are arrested.
Then you have a two tier system. You have the right to protect your own self when seconds count, and let the police take over when they arrive minutes later.
That’s how the system is supposed to work. Unfortunately, there’s too many people today who expect the police to do all the work like magic, but the citizen does nothing and all they do is complain that it’s the police who waste tax dollars. Citizens have their duty too.
LASD is out of touch has no Clue as to Metro Politics regarding the Do’s and the Do-Not’s of the Metro System Time for Metro to Go back to Haveing there Own Transit Police
Agreed, Metro should have its own police force, as it’d be better run (LASD doesn’t really do a good job of handling issues on Metro’s rail lines, and usually cause more headaches).
Uh, no. The last thing we need is more bureaucracy and more government agencies. More bureaucracy and more government agencies leads to more waste and corruption. In the end, everyone loses because it costs more to taxpayers to run an even more inefficient government system.
If Metro starts using their own police force, then that agency needs to buy their own law enforcement equipment. Where’s that money going to come from? And you all know how the police works. They ask for more money to buy unnecessary things like military gear and armored vehicles to use against protesters, assault rifles just to patrol a school, spy drones, etc. etc.
What we need is smaller government, not bigger one. Besides, LA Metro’s fare enforcement policies were less efficient when they had their own transit officers. What makes you think they’re going to get it right this time?
Besides your politicial ideology on the issue. What is your solution? It’s easy to arm chair a discussion without solutions.
Metro needs to staff permanent station workers who keeps an eye on the fare gates all the time against fare cheaters as well as helping out travelers on the Metro Rail system. That’s how it works everywhere else that runs on a gated system.
If Metro expects fare evaders to comply with the rules by saying “naughty naughty, you can’t do that” over a radio intercoms and surveillance cameras from a remote location as cheaters goes through the wheelchair access gates, then they’re clearly out of touch with the people. What is Metro going to do? Call the cops which by the time they arrive the cheater is long gone? Zap them with lasers from a remote location? C’mon.
Metro needs to stop being so lazy and taking the easy way out and they need real Metro staff at the stations.
It’ll cost money to do this, but Metro can always find ways to make money. Start renting out spaces at rail stations to shops and vendors. Move to a profitable distance based fare system. Then you have the money to hire station staff. That’s how every place with great transit system works.