This afternoon, Metro announced the hiring of William "Bill" Scott as the agency's first Chief of Police and Emergency Management. Scott will start work at Metro on June 23.
Scott is a long-serving law enforcement officer and leader. He served for 27 years in LAPD, rising to the rank of Deputy Chief. In 2017, Scott became Chief of the San Francisco PD, arriving billed as a reformer and a champion of community policing [more at his SFPD bio]. He resigned from SFPD this morning in preparation for his return to Los Angeles.
Metro has had an unsatisfactory record with transit policing. Metro currently contracts with three external law enforcement agencies: LAPD, L.A. County Sheriff's Department, and Long Beach PD. That arrangement has been criticized by both the public and Metro leadership as being ineffective, unresponsive, and expensive. So much so that Metro leadership pivoted toward the idea of building its own in-house police force in 2023. Chief Scott will lead that new police force, expected to number just under 700 officers.
Metro CEO Stephanie Wiggins acknowledged that, especially at the outset of the pandemic, safety issues had become a significant and growing concern for Metro riders and staff. She noted that her board had given her the difficult task of recruiting "a unicorn" public safety leader who had "fresh eyes and deep experience" in transit, law enforcement, and care-based strategies. Scott met these qualifications, having overseen a shift in culture in San Francisco and a drop in crime, including on SF MUNI.
Today, both Chief Scott and Metro leadership emphasized a multi-faceted approach to keeping Metro transit safe. Scott acknowledged his department's role as "deploy[ing] officers and work[ing] with... the community, ...ambassadors, and people who provide services - who care about people who need help."
"Sometimes enforcement is the answer," Scott said. "Sometimes it's not."
"I think any effective police department or public safety department has to balance both. It has to be about people. That's why I'm here and that's what I hope to do."
