L.A. Bus Crime Data Disputed : RTD Understates the Figures, Study Says

Bus crimes are a serious problem in the Los Angeles area and they’re greatly understated by the Southern California Rapid Transit District, two UCLA researchers report in a new study.

A sample of 1,088 randomly selected households in West-Central Los Angeles found that crimes committed on buses, at bus stops and traveling to and from the bus stops were 20 to 30 times higher than RTD reported in 1983.

In that year, according to RTD, 843 crimes against drivers or passengers were reported on buses in the 2,000-square-mile area served by the transit agency.

But the UCLA researchers--urban planning professors Ned Levine and Martin Wachs--estimated that more than 20,000 bus-related crimes took place in West-Central Los Angeles alone in that year.

(The area they surveyed is bounded roughly on the west by La Cienega Boulevard, on the north by the Hollywood Hills, on the east by Los Angeles Street and on the south by Slauson Avenue.)

Extrapolating from the sample of 1,088 households, the researchers projected that 10,016 crimes took place on buses, along with 7,919 crimes at bus stops and another 5,357 incidents en route to or from a bus stop.

The annual crime statistics compiled by RTD officials do not include crimes at bus stops or those involving people traveling to and from a bus.

However, even if only crimes on buses are counted, the RTD numbers are far lower than the projections by Levine and Wachs.

The UCLA researchers believe crimes committed at bus stops, or en route to and from bus stops, should be included in the RTD statistics because they have an effect on citizens’ confidence in public transit and their willingness to ride buses.

An important reason for the discrepancy between the RTD numbers and the Levine-Wachs findings is that “many people simply don’t report crimes to any police agency,” Wachs said in an interview.

Only 42% of the victims reported the crimes to police, according to the survey, and only 50% of the crimes that were reported in 1983 resulted in police investigations.

The survey also notes that many crimes investigated by local police agencies in the five-county area served by RTD are never reported to the transit agency.

When all this information “leakage” is plugged, Levine and Wachs say, it turns out that 20% to 30% of all crime in the area studied was related to bus trips.

“Viewed in this way, bus crime is a far more serious problem for urban policy-makers than has been obvious before,” they wrote.

This is especially important in the Los Angeles area, where RTD operates the largest all-bus transit system in the world. The system carries up to 1.8 million riders daily.

About 60% of the crimes were related to property--mostly purse-snatching and pocket-picking, the survey found. The median financial loss was $45.

But 25% was violent crime--armed robbery, assault or assault and robbery.

About one-fifth of the victims said they were injured, many seriously.

“Further, almost all the victims suffered emotional disturbance as a result,” the report stated.

Those most often victimized were the elderly, women, Latinos and low-income people, the ones who ride buses most often.

The bus stop reporting the highest crime rate was at 7th and Hill streets, in downtown Los Angeles, where a dozen or more bus routes converge and where pocket-picking, purse-snatching and jewelry thefts are common.

The second-most dangerous bus stop was located at Melrose and Fairfax avenues. The stops at Fairfax and 3rd Street and at Fairfax and Wilshire Boulevard also experienced a significant amount of crime, according to the report.

Students from Fairfax High School, piling onto buses at the end of the school day about 3 p.m., have so intimidated elderly riders around the school that most of them stay home, the report said.

Garry Spivack, director of planning for RTD, criticized the study’s methodology, claiming that Levine and Wachs were “extrapolating some very large numbers” from their 1,088 survey responses.

James Burgess, RTD chief of police, said the findings include second-hand reports from individuals who had not experienced bus crimes themselves but claimed to know people who were victims.

But Levine said this was not true, that only first-hand experiences of victims and other household members were counted.

Wachs said the survey was “at least as accurate as most political polls,” with a margin for error of about 5%.

The report suggests several steps, some not very expensive, that could be taken to reduce bus-related crime.

The authors propose that schedules be rearranged so that buses and bus stops are less crowded, since overcrowding appears to be a major contributor to crime.

They suggest that the back of the bus be redesigned so the driver can see what is happening and passengers can move about more easily.

Bus stop shelters could be installed that would separate passengers from passers-by and some stops could be moved to less dangerous locations.

They noted, for instance, that a stop at Hollywood Boulevard and Western Avenue is in a location where drug transactions frequently take place and suggested that even moving this stop a half-block east would improve the situation.

Police, either RTD or local officers, could be deployed at certain stops at particularly dangerous times, they suggested.

Burgess said some of these steps already have been taken and others are “impractical.”

He said extra policemen now are assigned to especially dangerous bus stops.

Silent Alarms

Buses have been equipped with silent alarm systems so drivers can call police in case of trouble, Burgess said, and 900 buses soon will be outfitted with cameras that will record happenings in the back of the vehicle.

Burgess acknowledged a serious problem with pick-pockets, purse-snatchers and other thieves at the downtown intersection of 7th and Hill streets. But he said that because of the large number of people taking many different buses, it would not be possible to construct the kind of separated shelters recommended by Levine and Wachs.

There might be room for such shelters, Wachs said, if several different boarding locations were used, instead of one massive area at the corner.

Burgess said moving the bus stop at Hollywood Boulevard and Western Avenue was not practical because too many bus lines intersect there and because the entire area is so dangerous that a shift of a block or two would not make a difference.

Besides, the transit police chief added, it is up to the city Transportation Department, not RTD, to locate bus stops.

“That’s the kind of question we’re discussing,” Wachs replied. “Every time we make a suggestion, the response is, ‘It’s not our responsibility.’ Well, responsibility for bus safety does belong to somebody. Let’s find out who and let’s do something about it.”

Wachs acknowledged that RTD “is in an awkward situation--the more they talk about crime on the buses, the more they drive people away, and that just increases the danger of victimization.

“We are not seeking a confrontation with RTD and we certainly aren’t arguing that people shouldn’t ride buses,” he said. “We’re just saying that transit trips should be made safer.”

Levine and Wachs did their study for the Federal Urban Mass Transportation Administration, part of the U.S. Department of Transportation.

They sent the findings to Burgess and to RTD General Manager John A. Dyer three months ago but “they didn’t respond,” Wachs said, “so we thought it was time to go to a broader” audience.

Copies of the report now have been sent to the Los Angeles City Council, the county Board of Supervisors and the RTD board of directors.