Open Letter to Los Angeles Metro and Los Angeles Sheriff

Dear Metro and Los Angeles Sheriff,

For the past 7 months I have been back riding the Green, Blue and Red lines to commute. I say “back” because 10 years ago I would ride them daily for my commute. I am very disappointed in how the overall experience has deteriorated. They say things get better with age, but that certainly isn’t the case with the Metro.

10 years ago riders on the Metro could feel safe on the trains because the sheriff would randomly board the trains to check tickets. I never had a trip to Los Angeles or back home without seeing at least one pair of sheriffs on the train. The random nature of these boardings seemed to keep people in line. There was nobody blaring loud music without headphones for fear of getting caught by a random sheriff boarding a train. My how times have changed!

In the past 7 months I’ve seen sheriffs on trains just 5 times. I see them standing around at various stops waiting to check tap cards, but that’s about it. This change in behavior and focus by the Metro and the Los Angeles Sheriff has degraded the rider experience on the Metro.

Riders now have to endure loud rap music blaring from Bluetooth speakers, rude people purposely taking up two seats, rude stares and comments from other riders. The experience is less than desirable. These things go on because of a lack of police presence on these trains. People know it is illegal to play loud music through speakers, but to them it isn’t illegal if they don’t get caught.

I understand you want to make sure everyone is paying their fare and that is why you station officers at key stations to check the TAP cards. However, not only do you have too many officers doing this simple task, they don’t even do anything to people who don’t have a card more than half the time. I have personally witnessed people enter the train station and avoid the payment of the fare. I’ve then seen the sheriff check them and when they are found to not have a card they are told “Next time have a card or you’re getting a ticket.”

Fares are so important, but so is a good experience for the riders of Metro. When you have 5 officers at Willowbrook standing around each morning while just 2 of them check cards there is a problem. Those other 3 could be boarding trains at random to handle the problems I’ve mentioned above. Safety doesn’t seem high on your list of concerns. Is it going to take a murder on board a train before safety becomes your top priority?

It is clear to me what the solution needs to be. I recommend the following steps to begin fixing the problems mentioned.

1. Randomly place an officer in street clothing aboard trains. S/he can catch those who violate the rules (i.e. Playing loud music, eating, drinking and smoking).
2. Have uniformed officers continually boarding the trains to check for fare payment and provide a deterrent to the law breakers.
3. Only post 2 officers at a station to check tap cards.
4. Add WiFi to the Red and Purple lines so passengers have a way to report problems in an emergency.
5. Have an app that enables passengers to easily report issues. Take a look at the app created by the City of Buena Park for a model that works.

The above 5 steps would go a long way towards improving the rider experience which, in turn, would increase ridership.

I look forward to seeing some changes in the near future.

Sincerely,

A dissatisfied customer