MTA Board OKs Takeover of Police Force
The MTA board voted Wednesday to turn responsibility for patrolling the county’s expanding bus and rail network to the Los Angeles city police and county Sheriff’s Department--a move that its chief proponent, Mayor Richard Riordan, has said will make the buses and trains safer.
The city-county takeover of the 383-officer Metropolitan Transportation Authority police force, the state’s 10th-largest police department, still must be approved by the City Council and County Board of Supervisors.
Los Angeles City Council members Laura Chick and Jackie Goldberg, who sat on the interagency committee reviewing the proposed merger, said the plan still has a long way to go.
“It’s always made sense that the MTA board wants this to happen,” Chick noted. “The question for us is, ‘How is this a plus for the LAPD and the people of Los Angeles in the bigger picture?’ ”
County Supervisor Gloria Molina, who serves on the MTA board, cast the lone vote against the merger, contending, “This action now, without a verification of the short- and long-term costs, is the equivalent of writing a blank check funded by the taxpayers.”
The merger also has been pushed by the Transit Police Officers Assn., which complained that MTA police do not receive the same benefits as other law enforcement officers.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
