MINNEAPOLIS — Metro Transit officials are expanding their "eyes and ears" system to promote security following high-profile criminal incidents on its buses and trains.
A double shooting last week on a Metro Transit bus left one person dead, and light rail operators have raised concerns about safety while on the job. These are some of the issues public transportation officials are looking to address with new safety measures they announced at a press conference Wednesday.
In 2020, Metro Transit has made additions to their "eyes and ears" system to enhance passenger safety by installing cameras on all rail cars, doubling the staff of their "text for safety program," authorizing more Metro Transit Police details of plainclothes officers and requiring Metro Transit Police to work mandatory additional hours each week.
Other announcements about the safety program included offering additional hours to any part- or full-time officers willing to work more, seeking additional resources through personnel loans from other regional police forces and requesting support from the legislature to address fare evasion with administrative citations.
“We’ve made progress, but we have a long way to go,” said Metropolitan Council Chair Charlie Zelle. “To aggressively address this problem, we need to dramatically increase safety and enforcement on all our buses and trains. The resources we have are enough for a dramatic increase in the ‘eyes-and-ears’ watching out for our customers in the short-term, but to implement a program of this magnitude permanently will require collaboration from the entire region as well as the legislature.”