The Metro Board of Directors on Thursday approved a $36-million increase to Metro’s five-year law enforcement contract with the Los Angeles Police Department, Long Beach Police Department and the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department to cover additional costs through Dec. 31 of this year. This item was previously scheduled to be heard last month when the increase was a proposed $111 million.
In addition, the Board yesterday approved the two motions posted below. We know the meeting was beset by frequent audio issues that made it hard for the public to follow what was happening. (The full webstream of the meeting with complete audio should be posted to the Metro website on Monday).
The first asks for Metro to develop a plan to compensate members of the agency’s new Public Safety Advisory Committee, which will hold its first meeting this spring. The second motion calls for Metro to include about $40 million in the 2022 budget (which begins July 1 of this year) for a number of initiatives aiming to improve safety on the system and connect the unhoused to social services and/or shelters.
Among these are a transit ambassador program, elevator attendants, installing blue boxes throughout the system and a flexible dispatch system for homeless outreach workers to better connect social services to the unhoused.
Categories: Policy & Funding, Projects
[…] cities from coast to coast, Los Angeles County Metro, the region’s public transportation agency, voted Thursday to boost police funding by $36 million.The vote passed 12-0, including a “yea” from Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, a major advocate […]
[…] “The Metro Board of Directors on Thursday approved a $36-million increase to Metro’s five-year law enforcement contract with the Los Angeles Police Department, Long Beach Police Department and the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department to cover additional costs through Dec. 31 of this year,” reports the The Source-Metro. […]
[…] Less than a year after “defund the police” fervor swept across major cities from coast to coast, Los Angeles County Metro, the region’s public transportation agency, voted Thursday to boost police funding by $36 million. […]
[…] Less than a year after “defund the authorities” eagerness brushed up throughout significant cities from coastline to coastline, Los Angeles County Metro, the area’s mass transit firm, elected Thursday to improve authorities financing by $36 million. […]
I see that there will be elevator attendants. Does that mean that there will be restrooms?
I question the timeline. It seems disingenuous to have the contract end Dec. 31st on the basis by then the new Public Safety Advisory Committee has made recommendations that are adopted and implemented. Considering that staff stalled months getting the PASC up and running and given the track record of a glacial bureaucracy like Metro to do anything quickly I predict a contract extension rushed through the December meeting citing an emergency of the agency’s own creation. What a cynical contrived exercise by the Tehnocrat / Law Enforcement Complex!