Rail System Gets Head Start on Security : Transportation: Nearly 300 arrests already have been made with use of sophisticated network. Line linking Long Beach to downtown L.A. doesn’t open for three weeks.

The opening of the $877-million Blue Line light-rail system linking Long Beach and downtown Los Angeles is still three weeks away, but a sophisticated security network designed to protect passengers and prevent vandalism has already led to the arrest of nearly 300 people.

The electronic surveillance equipment and a 118-member rail security force are being deployed because of concerns by law enforcement and transportation officials about gang activity along the 22-mile line.

“We’ve got about 15,000, or 22%, of all the gang members in Los Angeles County, residing within a mile of either side of the . . . line,” said Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Capt. Frank Vadurro, who commands security for the Blue Line. “If I were bent on criminal behavior along this line, I would look at our enforcement record first.”

The arrests were made by the rail security force since the system was begun in March and provided an early test for the network of roving patrol cars, plainclothes officers, closed-circuit televisions and telephone hot lines that feed into a command post in Willowbrook.

Suspects taken into custody along the rail line’s vacant platforms, stations and train tracks have been charged with crimes ranging from possession of narcotics and vandalism to malicious mischief and theft.

“Of course, the gangs will view this system as part of their turf,” said Sheriff Sherman Block, whose department oversees the rail line’s security force. “We intend to keep that from translating into vandalism, assault, graffiti and anything else against passengers.”

The Sheriff’s Department won the job of policing the rail system in March when Rapid Transit District directors, under pressure from county supervisors and Mayor Tom Bradley, voted to have deputies--instead of the RTD’s own police force--protect the line. The sheriff’s involvement will cost the county Transportation Commission $9.9 million a year.

A spokesman for RTD officers has expressed reservations about the Sheriff Department’s ability to handle crimes along the rail line. Transit officers said their greatest worry is a stretch between Slauson Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. During the mid-1980s, buses were boarded by armed gangs who robbed passengers in incidents that became known as “stage coach robberies,” said Kyle Ramsey, president of the Southern California Transit Police Officers’ Assn.

Sheriff’s officials downplay these concerns, saying a recent study showed that their force and equipment were adequate.

RTD and sheriff’s officials will direct the security system from a high-tech nerve center that they call the “USS Enterprise,” housed in a two-story concrete-and-glass structure guarded by a six-foot-high fence.

The centerpiece of the command post is a 30-foot-long color coded map that shows stations, platforms and the exact location of every train on the line. The map faces an array of computer terminals manned by RTD personnel. Emergencies will show up on the screen as blinking red or yellow lights--depending on the severity of the problem.

On an adjacent wall are 64 television screens linked to video surveillance cameras installed at each of the transit system’s 22 station platforms. In the trains, passengers will be able to press an intercom button and forward emergency calls to train operators. The operators, safe behind locked doors and shatter-proof windows, can radio deputies at the command post.

Deputies can even be shuttled to an emergency aboard a special maintenance car capable of catching up to a passenger train still in motion.

Response time, said Dan Ibarra, RTD superintendent of light rail operations, “will be immediate.”

Uniformed deputies and plainclothes officers will ride trains and roam stations, platforms and six park-and-ride locations along the route. “Our deployment strategy calls for increased presence during peak hours, but I won’t say there will be an officer on every train,” Vadurro said.

“But the chances are great that there will be a deputy riding with you,” Vadurro said, “and the chances are also great that there will be a plainclothes officer on board that you will never know about.”

These officers also will be in charge of ensuring that passengers have paid to ride the line. Those caught on board without tickets will be subject to fines.

When the trains begin running, some Guardian Angels may be along for the ride. A spokesman for the volunteer anti-crime organization said the group hopes to put as many as 100 members aboard the trains.

“The Guardian Angels are as welcome as any other citizen to ride these trains,” said Sheriff’s Administrative Sgt. Joe Anda. “In the public’s eye, I’m sure they will enhance a sense of security.”