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Friday, July 21, 2006 More deputies are on the job, but security remains elusive At best, security of Metro Transit is improving slowly but surely. "When you add up all the things we're doing," said Kevin Desmond, Metro's general manager, "you would say, 'Yes, we are improving security in our system.' " At worst, it's a security system that -- while changing direction drastically in recent years -- remains rife with problems. "We're spending a lot more money on transit security," said Jeff Doppmann, a 24-year Metro bus driver, "but we're getting nothing to show for it."
More full-time deputies are staffing the Metro Transit Police unit than ever before. And yet, security incidents reported by bus drivers are at their highest levels in recent years. Transit officers have implemented more aggressive policing tactics. But it's their non-transit counterparts from other police agencies that respond substantially more often to drivers' security reports. And at the center of all the changes are growing pains, manifested in a battle over turf. As county deputies increasingly work inside the city of Seattle, taking over the bulk of all Metro Transit assignments, city officers -- who are losing out on off-duty pay opportunities and complaining that deputies are overstepping their roles -- criticize the changes as counterproductive and potentially dangerous. (See memorandum of understanding between the two departments [119K PDF].) "It doesn't serve the community well, and it's very dangerous as a whole when you got police agencies jumping in front of each other to take action," said Rich O'Neill, president of the Seattle Police Officers' Guild, who has worked off-duty Metro assignments for 18 years. But Metro Transit Police Chief Carol Cummings told the King County Council on Wednesday that the two agencies frequently train together, and characterized their relationship as effective. Before the 1994 merger of King County government with Metro, Seattle officers primarily patrolled the bus system properties in the city. The merger led to the King County Sheriff's Office steadily taking over the duties, with full-time deputies replacing off-duty Seattle cops. When a rider shot a bus driver in 1998, causing his bus to plunge off the Aurora Bridge and killing three people, transit workers pushed harder for a change to a full-time unit, saying that they weren't getting enough protection. Metro began contracting for police services from the King County Sheriff's Office in 1998, said Deputy General Manager Jim Jacobson, although off-duty Seattle cops continued to largely police Metro properties within city limits. In 2003, the King County Council adopted its Regional Transit Committee's recommendation that Metro transit should increase the number of full-time deputies and decrease the use of off-duty police officers. Ever since, the sheriff's annual contract with Metro has gone up, with more deputies being added. In 2004, the budget was $3.7 million for 29 deputies. For this year, Metro agreed to pay the Sheriff's Office $5.2 million for security, including equipment and overhead and pay for 47 deputies -- the most full-time cops ever employed by Metro. (See contract documents [1.46MB PDF].) Meanwhile, an additional budget to pay off-duty police has dwindled by nearly $2 million over the same span. It may get more expensive. Metro managers declined to say whether they will seek more full-time officers in coming years. But already, Metro spends twice as much per officer on sheriff's deputies as on off-duty Seattle police officers: $32.30 an hour for city police versus $61.56 an hour (in 2002 wages) for county deputies, according to a 2003 County Council staff report. The difference arises because Metro must pay the Sheriff's Office for overhead and deputy benefits, but no such payments are made for moonlighters, the report said. Among the officials backing the move for a larger, full-time police force staffed by deputies are County Executive Ron Sims, Sheriff Sue Rahr and the union leaders representing transit workers. "We have a goal -- that our buses are going to be safe," Sims said. "And I think that (King County deputies) have done a great job in helping to make that happen." But is Metro Transit really safer? Statistics don't readily tell the story.
Despite the addition to the transit unit of more full-time deputies -- a rise from 29 to 47 in the last two years alone -- bus driver reports of incidents on and around their coaches have increased sharply in recent years. That may be the result, in part, of an improved reporting system installed two years ago. Ridership surveys show that passengers have felt safer on the transit system in recent years. And deputies have become more visible and active. They've added bicycle patrols, increased undercover work and taken a no-tolerance approach to certain offenses, such as graffiti and assaults on drivers, the managers said. (See ridership survey results [26K PDF].)
There has also been a crackdown on fare evaders -- people who, Metro managers say, are prone to creating other, more serious problems within the transit system. Desmond, the general manager, added that safety -- not fares -- is "the primary motivation for our police tactics." Still, fare evasion, a misdemeanor crime, is costly for Metro: Desmond conservatively estimates that 3 percent of the system's 100 million boardings per year aren't paid for. At the system's average per trip fare of 77 cents, that means Metro is losing at least $2.3 million annually in lost fares -- though Desmond conceded that losses are probably higher. Sims and others have said that deputies have been told to crack down on deadbeats. "We need to do high-profile hits, and we do that," Sims said, adding that Seattle police aren't as aggressive in their Metro police work. A 2003 report by the county suggested that Seattle police officers were not as effective as they could be. The report said unnamed city officials didn't want off-duty officers making arrests for fear that they would rack up overtime pay when the cases went to court. Some Metro employees say that despite all the changes, security is actually worse off today than it was several years ago. One 25-year Metro transit employee, who feared retaliation if identified for this article, said that unlike when the Sheriff's Office first took on full-time Metro policing in 1998, transit deputies today rarely seek input from drivers and supervisors to develop policing strategies. Consequently, new strategies aren't effective. Doppmann, the bus driver, agreed that recent changes have done little to make his route any safer. Recent security incident reports he has filed have gone ignored, he said, and transit cops seem to brush off his suggestions. "These guys may do a great job if they were essentially managed to do so," Doppmann said. "There doesn't appear to be any supervision. It's like these guys are deciding their own jobs, dictating their own hours." With recent high-profile arrests and other controversies -- such as the recent arrests of demonstrating cyclists -- county deputies have received criticism for being too aggressive. Such criticism is unfair, Sims said, adding that the system is far safer now than it used to be. "When that bus went off the bridge, I can tell you I heard all the complaints" that Metro security was too lax, Sims said. "So, we're damned if we do, and damned if we don't." P-I reporter Hector Castro contributed to this report.
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