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Committee advances transit safety package; members seek cost analysis for non‑armed crisis response
Summary
The Transportation Committee reviewed a transit safety package including panic‑button systems, vendor procurement, dispatcher integration and options to dispatch unarmed crisis responders; members requested a cost comparison and implementation timeline and asked staff to include unarmed responders in agreements.
The Transportation Committee continued its April 23 agenda with a report from the Department of Transportation and Metro safety partners on measures to improve safety for bus drivers and passengers. Committee members discussed vendor selection for video and radio equipment, panic‑button functionality, dispatcher procedures and the prospect of using unarmed crisis‑response teams instead of or alongside police.
H. Bryant Lee of the Department of Transportation presented program details and answered questions about procurement and implementation. The department said a vendor selection is near completion and that deployment across the fleet would continue through the year, with an internal target to have the systems installed and training delivered by fall for several hundred buses (the department estimated 300–400 buses as the remaining scope).
The committee explored how panic buttons would work operationally: activation would alert dispatch, enable remote audio monitoring from the vehicle, and generate a call to police when criteria are met; the department said dispatchers would be able to route calls to unarmed crisis‑response units when appropriate. Councilmembers stressed training for operators, limits on nonurgent activations, and safeguards against misuse.
Unarmed responders and cost questions
A councilmember proposed a modification to explicitly include non‑armed crisis response providers in implementation agreements, saying those responses can be less expensive than police responses. At the meeting a councilmember cited cost figures of $35 for a response by a crisis‑response provider and $85 for a police response; the committee asked staff to provide a formal cost analysis and to explain how the city’s reimbursement structure would work in collaboration with outside agencies.
Data sharing, conduct rules and timeline
Members also asked whether the city can share incident information about problematic passengers with other transit agencies. The department said Metro has a code of conduct and the authority to issue bans for repeat offenders; staff are evaluating how to mirror those administrative enforcement tools for the city’s DASH and Community Express services and to improve incident reporting so supervisors can act before conduct rises to criminal levels.
The committee requested a cost analysis and a follow‑up timeline; one member suggested a target deadline of 9–12 months for reporting back on vendor agreements and the cooperative dispatch model. The meeting record shows committee members supported the modifications and asked staff to return with the requested analysis and implementation schedule.
