New uniforms for Metropolitan Transit System compliance, security officers aim to increase public trust
SAN DIEGO CA March 30 2021 The Metropolitan Transit System unveiled new uniforms last week for its code compliance inspectors, part of an effort to increase public trust and make its unarmed inspectors look less like police officers.
The new uniforms consist of shirts that are highlighter yellow across the top half and sleeves and dark blue at the bottom. The pants are dark blue as well.
“The new look replaces the traditional blue uniforms with brighter uniforms to provide greater visibility of staff so riders can easily identify them for assistance if needed,” MTS officials said in a statement.
The agency’s 64 code compliance inspectors began wearing the new uniforms last week.
MTS contracts with Allied Universal, a private security firm, for 158 transit system security officers. Those security officers are expected to get new uniforms this summer that are a lighter shade of blue instead of the traditional dark blue of police uniforms.
Private contract security officers from Allied Universal will begin this summer to wear lighter blue shirts.
“The significant social justice issues involving law enforcement all over the country have made us even more aware of how we want to engage with the community,” San Diego Councilwoman Monica Montgomery Steppe, chair of the MTS public security committee, said in a statement. “We’ve made a concerted effort to place the focus on serving riders and the new uniforms reflect this new approach.”
MTS’s code compliance inspectors and the contract security officers patrol the agency’s three trolley lines, 95 bus routes and 53 transit stations. Code compliance inspectors have the power to arrest riders and write tickets but are not armed. The contract security officers are armed and can carry guns if they receive proper licenses from the state.
The agency and its security personnel have faced criticism in the past. In 2014, a video emerged showing contract security officers beating a man on a trolley. Last year, the agency settled a lawsuit outside of court with four men who had sued in 2018 over allegations of assault and excessive force.
In 2018, MTS saw a decline in crime on its trolley lines after beefing up security, but a series of stories last year from Voice of San Diego showed MTS’s fare evasion ticketing outpaced that of other agencies across the country. Voice of San Diego reported that those tickets overburdened low-income riders and that MTS enforcement disproportionately affected its Black riders.
An outside review made public last month recommended more than 60 changes to MTS’s security operations.
MTS officials said this week the agency has revised its use-of-force policies and implemented a fare citation diversion program while it begins to comply with the recommendations made in the outside review. The agency also hired Al Stiehler in January, bringing him from the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority, to take over as director of transit security and passenger safety.
“Over the past year, MTS Security has been working diligently with the Public Security Committee to explore ways to better serve our customers by emphasizing our role as ambassadors to our riders,” Stiehler said in a statement. “We have been adopting principles, guidelines and implementing policies to be of better service to our community, and the new uniforms align better with that approach.”
