Transit Police Merger Plan Hits Snag

In a setback for Mayor Richard Riordan, a plan to merge the county’s transit police force with the Los Angeles police and county sheriff’s departments ran into unexpected trouble Wednesday from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board.

The board once again delayed a decision on the merger and asked a panel of city, county and transit officials to further study the issue and report back in 30 days.

Riordan, who serves on the MTA board, has pushed for the merger as a way to increase security on the nation’s most crowded and sometimes unfriendly bus system. The 383-officer MTA force is the state’s 10th largest police department.

The mayor supported the delay when the merger drew a flurry of critical questions from county supervisors. Supervisors and the Los Angeles City Council must join the MTA board in approving the merger for it to take effect.

Supporters of the merger say it would provide more police protection at about the same cost, even though it would decrease the number of sworn officers by 33, to 350.

Plans call for hiring unarmed but uniformed fare inspectors to make sure rail passengers have bought tickets, freeing transit officers to patrol bus lines. The fare inspectors would have authority to issue $250 tickets to anyone caught sneaking onto a train without paying the $1.35 fare. They would carry radios in case they need backup from armed officers.

But county supervisor and MTA board member Gloria Molina pointedly asked how a “college student in a police uniform with a walkie-talkie”--her description of a fare inspector--would make the rail system safer.

Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, who also serves on the MTA board, expressed concern about plans to reduce the number of officers assigned to patrol the Long Beach-to-Los Angeles Blue Line trolley, which runs through her district.

“I have a real problem with this,” she said.

The proposal will be studied by a panel made up of three members each from the MTA board, the City Council and the Board of Supervisors.

David Louie, a member of the MTA citizens advisory panel and an opponent of the merger, dismissed it as a ploy by Riordan to deliver on his campaign pledge to hire 3,000 new officers. The merger would add about 200 officers to the LAPD’s roster. A Riordan aide said the mayor pushed the merger for efficiencies and safety.

Although Riordan lobbied hard for the merger, a prime mover behind it has been the Transit Police Officers Assn., which has complained that transit police do not receive the same benefits as other law enforcement officers.

Some City Council members have expressed concern about whether the LAPD would take on MTA officers with poor records. An LAPD spokesman said the department has screened the MTA police ranks and found only a few problem officers. Officials are studying their options, such as putting these officers in civilian jobs. Transit police also would be trained in LAPD policies.

The merger also would eliminate duplicate units within the MTA, such as its internal affairs section, freeing those officers to patrol the transit system’s 200 bus lines and three rail lines.

While the public perception of transit crime may have been shaped by Hollywood in such movies as “Speed” and “The Taking of Pelham One Two Three” and real-life incidents such as the poison gas attack on the Tokyo subway, transit police in Los Angeles most often deal with assaults, aggressive panhandlers, pickpockets, taggers and unruly passengers. They also issue tickets to riders who don’t pay the fare.

Supporters of the merger say it would put more officers on the street who can respond to any call.

LAPD officers, sheriff’s deputies and transit police have no way of communicating with each other from their patrol cars. When a call for help comes in to the MTA, the dispatcher sends the closest transit officer. An LAPD unit could be closer, but the dispatcher has no way of knowing that.

LAPD officers would patrol the subway and buses operating within the Los Angeles city limits, and sheriff’s deputies would patrol the Blue and Green Line trolleys and buses outside the city.