LAPD

As he films the scene unfolding in front of him at the Westlake/MacArthur Park station, Metro passenger Brock Bryan calmly pleads with an LAPD officer to stop manhandling a young woman he dragged off the train for putting her foot up on the seat.

Between May and September of this year, the lawsuit Public Counsel filed on behalf of the Labor/Community Strategy Center (LCSC) this past December 13 states, both Metro and the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department (LASD) failed to adequately respond (or respond at all) to multiple requests for public records regarding policing and fare enforcement practices, breakdowns of data on those arrested, cited, and engaged by law enforcement, and the agreements and communications between Metro and law enforcement agencies regarding law enforcement's role in policing transit. [The lawsuit can be found here: PDF]

Today the L.A. City Council approved $27.2 million in funding for Vision Zero, primarily for pedestrian safety improvements.

Stories highlighting the unique vulnerability of people of color - particularly men of color - in the public space remind planners and advocates that it is really hard for people to "reclaim" their streets and public spaces if trying to do so puts them in peril.

As the board prepares for this decision, it seems like a good time to remind both Metro and our law enforcement agencies that the passengers that have the greatest dependence on Metro are the ones who need safe passage the most. And right now, they're the ones who are least likely to feel like that is what they are getting.

It was never going to be easy to shift Los Angeles decision-makers' attitudes to care more about keeping people alive than about moving cars. Nonetheless, L.A.'s mayor and city council have approved the city's Vision Zero policy, and directed city departments to work together to, over time, reduce L.A. traffic fatalities to zero.

At the end of today's nearly 6-hour Metro board of directors meeting, the vote on the staff-recommended $547 million multi-agency transit policing contract was pushed back three months. Metro's new transit policing arrangement would scale back the L.A. County Sheriffs Department's current role in favor of a majority of the work being done by LAPD.

This Thursday, Metro's Board of Directors will consider a new contract for policing the agency's transit systems. Metro staff has recommended a five-year multi-agency policing proposal totaling $547 million. The proposal would split policing between the city of Los Angeles Police Department, LASD, and the city of Long Beach Police Department:

Over the course of the next two years, the city of Los Angeles plans to increase speed limits on many of its major streets. Why? According to the Police (LAPD) and Transportation (LADOT) Departments and due to pernicious state laws, cities are required to frequently study and increase speed limits to be able to actually ticket drivers who speed.