[IMAGE]Operator.jpg[/IMAGE]On June 4, 2009, 17-year-old Darrion Scott boarded a New Orleans Regional Transit Authority (RTA) bus with her two-year-old baby and was asked, repeatedly, to fold up her stroller, but refused. Eventually, Scott would tear off the top of her baby's milk bottle and pour the contents on top of Hanella Johnson, an RTA driver for 18 years, before stabbing her. Johnson survived; however, that is not always the case. In December 2008, for example, New York City Transit (NYCT) operator Edwin Thomas was repeatedly stabbed, fatally, by a man after confronting him for fare evasion.

No matter what precautions are taken, bus operators are definitely on the front lines when it comes to dealing with customers, and many times attacks, which include physical and verbal assaults and being spit upon, happen to them all too often for reasons as simple as asking a customer to pay the proper fare.

While many in the public transportation industry have differing opinions on whether operator assaults are currently escalating, many feel that it is a problem, even if it occurs once in a blue moon. Especially when it ends in an operator injury, or worse, a fatality.

So, what are transit agencies doing to help protect these ambassadors of their systems? The solutions range from situation mitigation and/or self-defense training to calling for stronger enforcement of federal laws or the implementation of stricter or brand new state laws. The bottom line is, whether it's these things or installing cameras aboard their entire fleets, stepping up police activity or issuing pepper gel to operators, transit agencies and the industry as a whole are working diligently to do what they can to protect operators.

Is it a huge issue?

Many assaults stem from confrontations involving operators and passengers who refuse to pay the proper fare. The prevailing opinion industry-wide seems to be that assaults on bus operators have been a problem for years, yet many are quick to admit that it has not become a problem of epidemic proportions. Still, the industry is not satisfied with assaults happening at any time.

"Winnipeg has a rather low number of assaults compared with other transit properties. That said, any instances are too many," says Winnipeg Transit's Director Dave Wardrop, who had an incident on his system that included a driver and two passengers being attacked by three would-be muggers just last year.

"We carry about 440,000 people a day. In 2008 for example, we had about 41 total reports of assaults," adds Tom Lambert, chief of police for the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County (Houston Metro). "We don't have a lot of those events compared to the people we carry and service we put on the street, but we're really concerned about any time you have an employee that's trying to provide a safe service on the street that is being threatened."

Unfortunately, there is no standard system for tracking driver assault statistics, however, most agency officials METRO spoke to reported the number of assaults that occur on their systems average from less than five to the  low 60s per year. Those numbers are often much greater in larger metropolitan cities.

For example, aboard NYCT's system, there were 236 bus driver assaults from Jan. 1 to Dec. 9, 2008, 43 of which involved fare evasion, while 67 involved someone spitting at the driver.

Meanwhile, some agencies saw numbers spike somewhat over the last year or so due to increased ridership, a downed economy and the cutting of services on the more popular routes, causing them to become overcrowded.

"You put all those things together, and you get a bunch of angry people that don't have jobs and are in a confined place, so tempers begin to flare, and that's what we've seen lately," says Rod Baker, chief of transit police at Lakewood, Wash.-based Pierce Transit. Baker adds, however, that even though the larger spike they are seeing due to these factors is in passenger-on-passenger assaults, it is still yet another factor adding to the possibility that a driver assault may occur.

Greg Hull, director, Operations, Safety and Security Programs, at the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), agrees that an economic downturn could definitely have an impact. "We aren't hearing that there are any dramatic spikes going on," he says. "We do know, however, that events can happen in waves sometimes and it can often be attributed to local economic conditions."

[PAGEBREAK]

Training

Transit agencies across the nation provide customer service training to their employees, particularly their bus operators. "Part of what we do is set up role playing situations where we try to have them look at how they could defuse or downplay a situation that is escalating," says Steve Okamura, safety & regulatory compliance manager at San Bernardino, Calif.-based Omnitrans. 

Scott Graham, director of operations at Omnitrans, adds that the agency's training also shows operators video of incidents that were handled either correctly or incorrectly, providing tips for what could have been done better in the latter cases. "Providing training for our operators is important," says Graham. "Particularly, when it comes to managing emotions under pressure. That type of training will be an ongoing and recurring part of our curriculum."

APTA's Hull explains that to help make sure that operators have good people and incident mitigation skills, agencies have deviated from their past hiring practices of looking for people with bus operating skills. "In the past, maybe going up to about 10 years ago, there was a tendency to look for people with commercial professional driving experience," he says. "Now, the trend is going the other direction to looking for people who are very well-balanced, who demonstrate good, effective interpersonal skills, and then train them up on the operation of the vehicle."

Pierce Transit also provides several weeks of training for its operators in customer relations, which includes examples of cooperative, non-cooperative, aggressive and agitated types of passengers. The agency has also taken its training a step further by providing self-defense courses.

"If they are being attacked by a person, we teach them how to use their feet, because there's a lot more strength in their legs than there is in their hands," explains Chief Baker. "The training focuses on how to avoid attack and to open the doors to be able to kick them out. It's just for on the bus, not for anything beyond that."

The training - "Defense from A Seated Position" - is delivered by a self-defense instructor from the local sheriff's department and has been well-received by Pierce's operators. Chief Baker adds, that based on its popularity, a refresher course is currently being designed.

Houston Metro also provides its operators with self-defense training and, giving even further credence to the phrase that they do "everything bigger in Texas," the agency began offering pepper gel to its employees who went through training beginning in November 2007. "We try to equip operators with the best tools that we can, whether it's verbal de-escalation skills or how to protect themselves when they are in their seat," says Chief Lambert. "This led to the use of another effective tool, which we think pepper gel is, if operators get to a point where they have to take it to the next step."

Lambert explains that the agency did much research before finally deciding on pepper gel, which was chosen because it is more focused and goes directly to the target person, rather then pepper sprays that end up impacting everybody in a bus' tubular type of environment because of overspray and the fact that it gets into the ventilation system. 

One big concern about the use of pepper gel and self-defense training, of course, is the age-old adage often attached to owning a gun, "if you have one, you're going to use it at some point." However, Lambert says that is not the case. "The proof is that in the last couple of years that we've done this, we have not seen an incident where an operator has inappropriately used the pepper gel, has inappropriately done anything physical that would result in us saying that we question their appropriate discretion or judgment of the circumstances," he says.  

In addition to training on the use of pepper gel, Houston Metro also makes it clear that if there is an incident where the operator becomes the assaultor instead of the assaultee, the agency is fully prepared to prosecute the offending operator.

APTA's Hull says that practices such as supplying pepper gel or self-defense training isn't the industry norm in any sense, but simply further steps that agencies are taking to ensure the safety of operators. "It's a situational determination made by the transit agency itself to actually teach self defense or things of that nature," he explains. "Certainly, we know there are risk exposures when we deal with the public, and we don't see providing training of that nature as a negative thing."

Driver Partitions

Widely used on Greyhound systems for the past six or seven years (see sidebar), many agencies have begun looking into using driver partitions - a plastic shield that separates and protects operators from passengers. In late 2008, there were several pilot projects under way and, reportedly, Florida's Miami-Dade Transit has elected to install the partitions across its entire fleet.

"Obviously, there have to be safety considerations taken into account so the bus operators have the ability to get out of the bus in a safe and effective way, as well as other things," says Jesse Derris, spokesperson for the Transport Workers Union of America (TWU). "But all things told, the more there is a barrier there, the better protected operators are."

According to Bentech Inc., a manufacturer of driver partitions, the cost ranges from $240 to $500 each. Aside from an operator's safety in the case of an accident, another concern about adding driver partitions is the possible impact it may have on customer service.

"The partitions provide additional safety, but also impede the driver's ability to interact with the customers," says Winnipeg's Dave Wardrop, who was considering adding the extra form of protection of his agency's buses following an incident. Wardrop adds that while the local Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) chapter continues to advocate for the implementation of the partitions, there continues to be an open dialogue as the idea is explored.

Non-operator initiatives

Aside from training and equipping operators with the necessary tools to deal with potential assaults, transit agencies are taking further steps that not only have operator safety in mind, but the safety of the entire transit system for all employees and customers.

Pierce Transit has a dedicated transit police unit that is supplemented by off-duty officers from both Lakewood and Tacoma, Wash., who ride the system and also monitor it through radios that enable them to hear what is going on aboard the bus and, typically, respond before they would if they were dispatched through the 9-1-1 center.

The system also uses periodic plain clothes police stings to cut down on fare evasions - the typical catalyst to operator assaults - by arresting those who refuse to pay. "It wasn't because of the $1.50 fare, it was because it was rule enforcement of something that was causing a majority of the assaults," says Chief Baker. "When we went after it aggressively like that, we saw, over an 18-month period, about a 77-percent reduction in assaults."

Chief Baker adds that because of the cost of the initiative, the agency is unable to have that sort of presence on the system every day. To maintain enforcement, however, Pierce Transit will choose peak periods at various times of the year to employ boarding teams for a couple of weeks at a time. He says that arresting offenders and getting their names in the paper or on TV helps make people aware that fare evasion will simply not be tolerated.

Meanwhile in Houston, Metro officials say that moving to a more streamlined payment system, which enables passengers to use either cash or a smart card, known as a Q Card, reduced fare-related operator assaults nearly 78 percent, from 18 in 2007 to merely four in 2008, according to Chief Lambert.

"We took a fare media system that had some 63 different ways that you could pay to use our services and took a very bold initiative that took those 63 down to two ways to pay," says Chief Lambert, who adds that overall assaults on the system were down in 2008 approximately 39 percent compared to 2007. "It lessened the confusion that you could have between a bus operator and a patron in what was the right fare, thus avoiding conflicts."

[PAGEBREAK]

Digital surveillance systems

There is no doubt that real-time closed circuit television systems (CCTV), or digital audio- and video-recording systems, could mean the difference between identifying and prosecuting an offender and not having a chance to do either of those things.

"The system we have right now is eight year old technology, and we have it going down more frequently then we'd want it to, so we're putting an RFP out for a new system," says Ominitrans' Graham. "The new system is going to include a monitor that is going to be above the operator's cabin area, so when people board the bus they'll see themselves on the TV screen. Subliminally when you know you're being watched, it usually serves as another deterrent."

Graham adds that, though outdated, the current system has been helpful in providing film that can be used for training purposes, especially when discussing what the proper and improper ways are to deal with certain situations.

In response to assaults occurring approximately 30 times a year onboard its transit system, Winnipeg began installing audio- and video-recording systems on each of its close to 260 vehicles, at a cost of approximately $3 million. The rollout is expected to be completed by this fall.

By feeding the information taken from the onboard surveillance systems back to operations centers, transit agencies have been able to better protect the operators as well as their entire system. It seems to be a trend that is slowly growing into a necessity.

"We are seeing the majority of transit agencies across the country adding digitized surveillance equipment. Certainly, it adds a level of protection and security for the transit operators because the public riding know that there is an onboard surveillance system," says APTA's Hull, who adds that silent alarm systems are also gaining popularity. "Additionally, in instances where a passenger says that they slipped, tripped or fell, it enables the agency to be able to validate whether in fact that happened, making it another form of defense, in a sense, for the transit operator and agency as well."

Federal laws

With assaults of bus operators being a problem for many, many years, some thought that a provision written into the "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001," AKA the Patriot Act, would help deter individuals from attacking not only the systems themselves but drivers as well.

The provision, which was created to convict those who attack mass transportation systems, said that if the offender committed such an attack while no passenger was on board, they are fined and imprisoned for a maximum of 20 years. However, if the activity was undertaken while the mass transportation vehicle or ferry was carrying a passenger at the time of the offense, or the offense resulted in the death of any person, then the punishment is a fine and life imprisonment. Previously, the law criminalized aggression against vehicles of mass transportation in a piecemeal approach. However, section 801 as it is known, fills in the gaps between the various pre-existing laws by generally making a violent or terrorist act against a vehicle of mass transportation a federal crime when "such act is committed, or in the case of a threat or conspiracy such act would be committed, on, against or affecting a mass transportation provider engaged in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce, or if in the course of committing such act, that person travels or communicates across a state line in order to commit such act, or transports materials across a state line in aid of the commission of such act."

Enforcement of the Patriot Act provision, however, has been spotty. "Enforcement varies by locale. It varies to the same degree as where we see citations being given to people for evading fares, who then go to court," explains APTA's Hull. "Some jurisdictions, states or municipalities give very strong support, whereas others tend to minimize the citation. So, there is inconsistency in how the courts have supported these forms of violations and crimes."

ATU officials had tried for years to get a federal law put on the books that would increase the penalties for assaulting a transit operator, but were "laughed at until after 9/11" when they included it in the Patriot Act, says Jeffrey Rosenberg, legislative director for ATU International. "What we've been finding is that, in general, despite the fact that we have this federal law in place, the feds are just not willing to press those high charges against people and, inevitably, they pass it down to state and local government authorities," he says. "That is why we've pushing for the changes at the state level."

In Canada, two Private Members have re-introduced Bill C-314, which attempts to amend the Criminal Code to protect public transportation workers, by increasing the punishment for aggravated assault when the victim is a public transportation worker.  

Focus on the states

Currently, the ATU is focusing on trying to fill the gap in Patriot Act provision enforcement by pushing for increased penalties or new laws altogether for assaulting a bus operator. It has been successful in more than 20 states to this point, having just helped lead campaigns in Maryland this year and the District of Columbia last year. Other states that have laws on the books that make it illegal to assault an operator include California, Florida and Illinois. The ATU's Rosenberg says that the biggest pushback that the union is getting from legislators is that they say you can't place more of a penalty on assaulting one individual than on assaulting another.

"What we tell people, and it appears to be a winning argument, is the fact that when you assault a person that is driving it is pretty self-explanatory that you're just not putting that person in danger, but everybody else that is on the bus and outside of it - pedestrians, bikers and other drivers," he explains. "If you have a distracted vehicle operator, everybody is in danger, and that kind of argument has seemed to work."

Rosenberg adds that the ATU's efforts have caused about one state per year to add a new law and that they will continue to make the argument until it is on the books in all 50 states.

Some agencies, such as Maryland's Montgomery County Transit and Pierce Transit, have gotten creative and adopted laws that enable them to exempt passengers who break the agencies' rules.

"What we do is a minimum exclusion period for 90 days. There's an appeals process of course, and if there is a violent act, such as an assault, not only does the person get arrested but we also exclude them for a minimum of one year or permanently depending on the circumstances," says Pierce Transit's Chief Baker.

The program in Montgomery County, meanwhile, applies to all county employees and also has a minimum exclusion of 90 days, which is enforced by its field supervisors. "It's creative," says Rosenberg. "When it comes down to it, there are a limited amount of things we as an industry can do, and we are trying every approach."

Pierce Transit's Chief Baker says that the agency's exclusion program's tougher stance - many agencies he says will exclude for only a few days, if at all -- has been a great tool in limiting the amount of rules broken on the transit system, including operator assaults. "We've done about 3,000 exclusions and our recidivism rate is less than two percent," he explains. "That means it's pretty effective."       

[PAGEBREAK]Greyhound at forefront of safety

 

Following 9/11, many forms of passenger travel increased their security initiatives, and Greyhound was certainly one of them. "Much of our security practices were expanded after 9/11, thanks to Department of Homeland Security funding, which supplemented our additional funding," says Abby Wambaugh, spokesperson for Greyhound.

The intercity motorcoach carrier uses surveillance cameras in most of its terminals, many of which also have police substations, and hand searches of carry-on bags are also done in various locations throughout the network. The boost in funds post-9/11 also helped Greyhound expand its mandatory pre- and post-trip checks on all of the exterior and interior areas of the coaches, which drivers must perform before and after they drive to ensure the safety of themselves and the passengers.

"Our buses are also equipped with an onboard communications system - CADEC - that puts drivers in touch with our operators in Dallas or with the local 9-1-1 dispatcher in the case of an emergency," says Wambaugh. The system - which is installed on Greyhound's buses in the Northeast, all new buses and eventually across the entire network - also has remote shutdown capabilities in the event of extreme emergencies, according to Wambaugh.

An additional form of security comes in the form of driver shields, which have been in place for approximately the last seven years.

As for training, Wambaugh explains that Greyhound drivers are trained to aggressively enforce its zero tolerance policy, with respect to unruly or aggressive passengers. They are also trained to have a heightened awareness of suspicious behavior and prohibited items, so if there's anything they have question about, instead of second guessing themselves, they are trained to go ahead and report it and go through the necessary steps per company policy.

"If anything happens in route and a passenger were to become unruly or aggressive, whether that be toward [our drivers] or another passenger, drivers are trained to pull over the coach to a safe location and contact the authorities," she says. "The driver shields also allow them to have some advanced warning and more time if a situation like that were to occur." 

Cell phones are also given to each operator. "Obviously, they are prohibited to use them while driving, but are allowed to have them on the coach for unforeseen scheduling changes or to contact the necessary authorities in the case of an emergency," Wambaugh explains.

 

0 Comments