LA Metro Transit Police

[officer_415]

SFPD Chief Bill Scott has been tapped to head up a new police force for LA Metro Transit:

LA Metro taps ex-LAPD deputy chief to lead in-house police force

LA Metro Wednesday announced former San Francisco Police Chief William "Bill" Scott will be the first head of its in-house police force.

www.nbclosangeles.com

 

[LAflyer]

Good luck to him.

MTA previously had its own police force of upwards of 500 officers and was disbanded in the late 1990s as cost mounted and force simply could not provide enough coverage across the County.

I have doubts that a proposed similarly sized force with an even larger ground and a rail network that did not exist back then will have any better success.

They are talking about a 5-year process to build out this new agency. Get the popcorn out.

 

[ChicagoRadio736]

I thought the LA County Sheriffs handled Transit security in Los Angeles county

 

[ladn]

I thought the LA County Sheriffs handled Transit security in Los Angeles county

It's like other "contract cities" (West Hollywood, La Canada-Flintridge, Santa Clarita, LA Community College Dist., etc.). The entity contracts with LASD for a certain level of service.

Apparently Metro thinks it can do better by reinventing the wheel. LASD will probably have the contract for training the new transit cops and a few deputies may even "defect" to the new agency.

 

[LAflyer]

Metro had a multi-agency contract with LAPD, LASD, and Long Beach PD for transit policing. Long Beach opted not to renew its contract that expired in late 2024. LAPD and LASD agreements were extended.

 

[K6GBW]

My wife was a lieutenant at the LASD Transit Services Bureau and the problem keeps coming back to money and unrealistic expectations. The MTA board wants everything and wants to pay nothing. They have crazy expectations and fund the absolute minimum they can get away with. Both the Sheriff’s and LAPD have started to push back and so now MTA thinks they can do better on their own. But, as has previously been mentioned, they had a police department and they scrapped it as a cost saving measure, so I’m not sure what‘s changed other than the fact that we have all new MTA board members.

 

[ladn]

The MTA board wants everything and wants to pay nothing.

They learned their management lessons very well from the railroads.

 

[fantasma25]

Their best option is a combination of security and LEO. In the past they had their internal metro security which was assisted by contract security. Not sure if this is still correct. Contract security will be cheaper and can patrol most of their stations. They can be assisted by LEO that can be assigned specific sectors and can easily respond to assist the security staff as situations arise. This should enable them to maintain a lower cost while still having LEO's to respond to emergencies as needed.

 

[prcguy]

Is there a push to get a new thing going for the 2028 US Olympics in LA?

 

[LAflyer]

Their best option is a combination of security and LEO. In the past they had their internal metro security which was assisted by contract security. Not sure if this is still correct. Contract security will be cheaper and can patrol most of their stations. They can be assisted by LEO that can be assigned specific sectors and can easily respond to assist the security staff as situations arise. This should enable them to maintain a lower cost while still having LEO's to respond to emergencies as needed.

The current set up is indeed mix of in-house and contract security supplemented by the various law enforcement contracts.

The problem is the security cant do much except standby and observe, including witnessing a few high profile incidents until someone shows up. With a county of 4,000 odd square miles, thousands of miles of bus and rail routes, and hundreds of facilities its a tall order to cover with a proposed thin police workforce.

Is there a push to get a new thing going for the 2028 US Olympics in LA?

Not particularly. Latest news is they are planning to be fully operational in 2029. One big challenge will recruitment with all law agencies facing difficulties these days finding and hiring qualified candidates.

I doubt their proposed budget for in-house law enforcement today will resemble what is reality by 2029.

 

[K6GBW]

California used to have a lot of limited peace officer jobs. Over the years they’ve pretty much all been eliminated and all police have to meet the same state POST requirements. The POST requirements out here are pretty stringent and people that meet them and go through the training aren’t going to want a job standing on a platform or riding a training. They used to have the 832 with Firearms training where you could hire people for essentially guard duty, but with a little teeth. They had arrest powers on duty and they were limited in their scope of authority. But over the years the unions pushed all those jobs into full time POST positions. Now the MTA wants to have a cop on every platform, but they don’t want to pony up for it. I don’t see this ever getting resolved until someone realizes you don’t really need a full on cop so much as a higher quality guard. All it takes is some legislation.

 

[prcguy]

Next question, what radio system would a new Metro transit police force use?

 

[prcguy]

SFPD Chief Bill Scott has been tapped to head up a new police force for LA Metro Transit:

LA Metro taps ex-LAPD deputy chief to lead in-house police force

LA Metro Wednesday announced former San Francisco Police Chief William "Bill" Scott will be the first head of its in-house police force.

www.nbclosangeles.com

In my experience, anytime Los Angeles has inherited someone from San Francisco its been a disaster.

 

[K6GBW]

I know when they were building the line under Wilshire Blvd they came to us and asked about our radio system to check for compatibility. It seems they have a 900 MHz system throughout all the tunnels. The busses also use 900 MHz “transit trunked“ system so I think a 900 MHz system is most likely since they could simple create a few talk groups for them. The Freeway Service Patrol also uses the same system since the MTA is the parent organization for them here.

 

[LAflyer]

As a county agency I could see them on the LA-RICS system.
The inhouse security today utilizes the analog UHF repeaters which were left over from the first time they had PD force.
The 900Mhz stuff is for bus operations and freeway service. Rail uses 150/160Mhz NXDN system.

 

[d119]

I know when they were building the line under Wilshire Blvd they came to us and asked about our radio system to check for compatibility. It seems they have a 900 MHz system throughout all the tunnels. The busses also use 900 MHz “transit trunked“ system so I think a 900 MHz system is most likely since they could simple create a few talk groups for them. The Freeway Service Patrol also uses the same system since the MTA is the parent organization for them here.

No chance of them using 900MHz. That would kill all interoperability, especially considering their 900MHz system is still SmartZone and thus, APCO-16 (read: Motorola only, since EFWood doesn't make a 900MHz APCO-16 portable). That 900MHz system is for the bus & FSP units only, and has no coverage in the tunnels (why would it?).

My money is on LA-RICS or ICI for their operations, when the time comes.

 

[K6GBW]

You guys are way overthinking this. The MTA Board will take the reasonable common sense solution and look for a way to do it cheap. They don’t really care about policing. They are only doing this to quiet the herds calling for change. My wife used to sit in on their meetings and she’d come home shaking her head in disgust at the ridiculous things they would do.

 

[ladn]

My wife used to sit in on their meetings and she’d come home shaking her head in disgust at the ridiculous things they would do.

Our tax dollars not at work. This is what we get with politicos running the show.

 

[d119]

Our tax dollars not at work. This is what we get with politicos running the show.

Trust me when I say that is just transit in general, nothing unique to LAMTA. Transit *always* runs in the red. It NEVER makes enough to cover its costs or have a surplus. That being the case, frugality is key, and that considered, leasing time on LARICS or ICI is the most cost-effective solution for multiple reasons. Trying to do this on 900MHz with the existing SmartZone system is *not* cost effective.

My guess (and that's all it is) is they will likely be dispatched by another agency and not internally.

It'll be a police department with the bare minimum "fringe".

 

[d119]

Trust me when I say that is just transit in general, nothing unique to LAMTA. Transit *always* runs in the red. It NEVER makes enough to cover its costs or have a surplus. That being the case, frugality is key, and that considered, leasing time on LARICS or ICI is the most cost-effective solution for multiple reasons. Trying to do this on 900MHz with the existing SmartZone system is *not* cost effective.

My guess (and that's all it is) is they will likely be dispatched by another agency and not internally.

It'll be a police department with the bare minimum "fringe".

Though now I'm hearing that LAMTA just dropped $120m+ on a new radio system that is supposed to be L3H. I haven't independently confirmed that.

Curious if it's going to stay on 900, or move elsewhere...

Anyone?