The Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors moved forward with plans to study the feasibility of replacing the private security on Milwaukee County Transit System buses.
In a unanimous vote on Thursday, the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors moved forward with plans to study the feasibility of replacing the private security on Milwaukee County Transit System buses. The group could potentially suggest putting Sheriff’s Deputies on buses, or creating a new classification of transit security officer within the Milwaukee County Sherriff’s office.
“This is something that something that drivers and even the transit union president have been complaining about for a very long time,” said County Supervisor Dan Sebring, who sponsored the resolution along with Supervisor Patti Logsdon. “That the private security that is being provided by MCTS is inadequate and ineffective.” The resolution cites a November 19, 2018 assault on an MCTS bus driver
MCTS currently pays a private security firm approximately $1.5 million per year for 1,360 service hours per week. While it is up to the work group to come up with an estimate of how much putting new transit officers on the buses would cost, Sebring anticipates it would cost more.
Sebring envisions having sheriff’s deputies in plain clothes randomly riding different problem routes. “I think that word would get around real fast that the deputies are riding around and if you act up you’re going to get in trouble,” he said.
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While the Board unanimously passed the resolution, some supervisors still expressed reservations about putting officers on buses.
Supervisor Supreme Moore-Omukunde raised concerns about officers striking an aggressive tone and taking unnecessary action against individuals. He brought up Oscar Grant, a 22-year old African American man who was fatally shot by a Bay Area Rapid Transit officer on New Year’s Day 2009 in Oakland. “While I give our Sheriff the benefit of the doubt, I am cautious about having Sheriff’s Deputies on buses,” he said. “I would hate to be in a situation where a deputy takes an action that is seen as overreacting on our County buses. Where someone is harmed, and it may be interpreted that they did not necessarily deserve to be harmed.”
Supervisor Sylvia Ortiz-Velez said that she hopes that the officers would focus on security, and not on fare disputes. “What I don’t want to happen, and I know that other supervisors feel the same way, is that some of these officers… use that for fare disputes,” she said. “I really feel that sometimes, when you take actions, it’s not whether you can do something, it’s whether you should do something.”
An earlier draft of the resolution including specific verbiage about fare evasion. This was amended to instead say that the officers “would have full law enforcement authority.”
“It would give them the leeway to decide for themselves if this person genuinely deserves to ride the bus for free,” Sebring said. “We hear all the time about bus drivers stopping to help people on the side of the road—whether it’s a child who is barefoot in the snow or someone in a wheelchair or whatever the case might be. I don’t want those people to get tickets for not paying the fare.”
The study group will be led by the Sheriff’s Office, and consist of individuals from the Department of Human Resources, Department of Administrative Services, and Comptroller’s Office. The group will also look at funding sources.
The study group will present a report to the board by May of this year. If passed, Sebring said it would then “become a question of if Sheriff Lucas will actually do it.”
