The item, whose co-agendizers included incoming Metro Board chair LA Mayor Eric Garcetti, LA City Councilman Mike Bonin and LA County Supervisor Janice Hahn, directs Metro;s Chief Executive Officer to:

A.. Establish a Transit Public Safety Advisory Committee" that incorporates Metro's existing Community Safety & Security Working Group and includes "additional perspectives that represent Metro’s ridership and advocacy organizations, including but not limited to racial, cultural, gender, income, geography, immigration status, and housing status.":

In partnership with the Advisory Committee, Metro's Office of Civil Rights, Executive Officer for Equity & Race, and Executive Officer for Customer Experience, will now "develop a community-based approach to public safety on the transit system, including but not limited to

1. A transit ambassador program that provides staffed presence at Metro facilities and on Metro vehicles.

2. Alternatives to armed law enforcement response to nonviolent crimes and code of conduct violations.

3. Greater community stewardship of transit spaces, such as supporting street vending in transit plazas.

4. The Universal Blue Light program proposed in Metro’s June 2018 ridership initiatives (BF 2018-0365).

5. Education about and expansion of fare discount programs.

6. Outreach and services for unhoused individuals.

7. A shift of resources from armed law enforcement to the above strategies.

C. Consult with the Advisory Committee when developing the new scope of services, budget, and other provisions of the multiagency police contract renewal.

D. Report back to the Operations, Safety, and Customer Experience Committee in 90 days, and quarterly thereafter until the 2022 contract renewal. In the final quarterly report of 2022, include an external, third-party evaluation of the effectiveness of the Advisory Committee and a recommendation on whether it should continue.

[Scroll down for further.]

Prior to the Board vote, public testimony (emailed and read aloud) was overwhelming in urging Metro to eliminate police officers entirely from Metro's trains.

During Board discussion, LA County Supervisor Kathryn Barger said she believes Metro riders want to be kept safe by armed officers. She was among a handful of Metro boardmembers to vote "no" on the motion,

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In March 2017, LBPD (with unanimous support from the LB City Council) entered into a contract (through 2022) with Metro to deploy sworn LBPD officers along the LB portion of Line A (Blue Line) with Metro paying the cost of the deployed officers. (Metro also contrcted with LAPD and LASD to handle other parts of the system.) LBPD management said it would provide the Metro contracted officers using LBPD overtime (so as not to reduce LBPD neighborhood police levels.)

LB Councilmembers universally praised Mayor Garcia for the contract, which Metro staff recommended to increase actual and perceived security (and acknowledged it will also save Metro money). Metro's Board approved the agreement on Feb. 23, 2017 with Mayor Garcia voting "yes" as a Boardmember.

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A year later, LBPD issued a release at this link indicating that in its first year, the LBPD Metro deployed officers had "reduced Part 1 crime by 50% and Part 2 crime by 80% within the eight station platforms and trains that fall under the City’s jurisdiction." It added that "the presence of officers in and around the platforms has reduced assaults against train operators by 30%, and achieved an average Priority 1 response time of 2.38 minutes."

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