Metro crime data from Jan. 2018. Click on page above to see larger.

It goes without saying that safety and security is a very big deal for Metro customers — riders have told the agency that over and over.

And the message was received. In July, the Long Beach and Los Angeles police departments joined the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department in patrolling the Metro system. The move was designed to increase the number of police on the Metro system at any given time. The agency has also expanded the number of its own security guards and private security guards on the system.

How’s it working? It’s certainly early to fully judge but stats from 2017 and January of this year are encouraging:

•Part one crimes — i.e. the most serious crimes — were down nine percent in 2017 from 2016.

•Part two crimes were down 32 percent in 2017 from 2016.

•Bus operator assaults were down 22 percent in 2017 from 2016.

•Since Metro adopted the multi-agency approach to policing the system, part one crimes are down 42.4 percent (from July of last year through this January) and part two crimes are down 25.5 percent.

The numbers from this past January have also been compiled and show the positive trends continuing:

•System-wide part one crimes were down by 19.7 percent in January 2018 when compared to Jan. 2017. In Jan. 2018, there were 3.3 part one crimes per million boardings.

•System-wide part two crimes were down by 22.1 percent from Jan. 2018 compared to Jan. 2017. Part one crimes on rail were down 11.5 percent and on bus down 35.6 percent.

•Operator assaults were down by 47 percent in Jan. 2018 compared to Jan. 2017.

•Emergency response times averaged 3.91 minutes for the month of January 2018. By comparison, response times were five minutes or more in every month of 2017.

“We’re pleased to see these numbers but we’re also not going to stand pat,” said Alex Wiggins, Chief of Metro’s System Security and Law Enforcement Division. “Our goal is for every rider and every employee to feel safe 24/7.

“We know that we still have work to do — we want to tighten up our fare enforcement and work to mitigate the adverse impacts of homelessness, which is a big regional issue,” Wiggins added. “I’m pleased these numbers show progress and I appreciate the hard work and dedication of our law enforcement partners.”