![]() In response to the 2020 George Floyd protests and movements for Black lives, Metro formed a public safety advisory committee of transit riders, including several members of our coalition, the Alliance for Community Transit-Los Angeles (ACT-LA), to identify solutions to problems they encounter on Metro. The ambassador program reflects efforts to develop a community-based approach to public safety. This plan to keep policing at the center of Metro’s safety strategy will undermine both the success of the ambassadors and Metro’s efforts in recent years to improve safety for all riders. This quantifiable evidence showing success is part of why community advocates like us celebrated when in October, the Metro board voted to transition its ambassadors from a contracted pilot to a permanent in-house program.īut Metro is also exploring another in-house proposal: replacing its ineffective and expensive law enforcement contracts with its own police force, a move the board is set to consider next year. Among transit riders surveyed, 63% said that they felt safer in the presence of ambassadors. They did so with CPR, suicide prevention, naloxone to reverse opioid overdoses and other interventions. ![]() Metro’s ambassadors - the unarmed “green shirts” who offer riders hospitality, navigation help and connections to social services - have saved more than 70 lives on transit. Since the program launched last fall, L.A.
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