L.A. Metro wants local police, not deputies, to oversee system

LOS ANGELES — A Metropolitan Transportation Authority report recommends transferring public safety responsibilities for more than half the subway and light-rail system and 60% of the region’s bus service away from the Sheriff’s Department to local police departments, reports the Los Angeles Times.

Instead, agency staff said, the LAPD should oversee bus and rail service and other Metro facilities in Los Angeles, and Long Beach police officers should patrol eight Blue Line stations, while the Sheriff’s Department would patrol the remainder of the system,  the report said.

The Sheriff’s Department, the sole agency policing the Metro transit system since 2003, has “poor system-wide visibility” and struggles to schedule enough deputies to meet required staffing levels, the MTA wrote, according to the Times. 

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