Crime on L.A. County’s Metro Bus and Rail system has decreased 17 percent over the last five years, according to new crime figures by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
Between 2015 and 2019, total Part 1 and Part 2 crimes, known respectively as “serious” and “less serious” crimes, have both fallen on the Metro system, MTA says. Part 1 crimes have decreased 23 percent and Part 2 crimes have nearly 11 percent. Crime reductions have been observed in all major crime categories, including crimes against persons, crimes against properties and crimes against society. Statistics are reported to Metro regularly by multiple law enforcement partners now patrolling the transit system, including the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, the Los Angeles Police Department and the Long Beach Police Departments, MTA says.
Overall, there are approximately 3.9 crimes per million transit rides.
MTA credits the decrease to a focus on improving safety and security, which includes employing a combination of a law enforcement agencies, Metro transit security, private security and in-house fare compliance officers. Metro says it has shortened law enforcement response times to reported incidents to about five minutes. The agency has also deployed “surge” operations as needed, targeting specific crime trends and suspicious activity inside Metro stations.
“Our transit system is certainly not immune from some of the issues found in the rest of L.A. County, but we are now beginning to see the tangible benefits of our multi-agency law enforcement model,” says Metro CEO Phillip A. Washington. “A single crime on our system is one too many, but we are clearly moving in the right direction.”
Metro says it continues to build a robust and collaborative and intelligence-led training and exercise program with multiple stakeholders to train and prevent, mitigate and prepare for hazards. It says that it has regularly deployed its explosive detection system randomly throughout the system to augment its counter-terrorism measures. Riders can also anonymously report safety and security concerns with their smart phones using Metro’s Transit Watch app.
