In November 2022, two males linked to a Metro security program beat up one other man on a station platform. Video footage, which The Occasions obtained final week, reveals one of many staff squaring off earlier than hanging the person whereas the employee’s colleague sporting a black shirt that claims “safety” jumps into the fray throwing fists. The person fights again, is pushed down onto the Metro platform, and finally ends up on the tracks. Nonetheless held by one of many pair, he tries to yank away and throws punches till he’s let go.
The 2 “neighborhood intervention specialists” — unarmed neighborhood members who’ve expertise with at-risk populations and gang intervention — had been employed to embed inside Metro’s “road groups” to de-escalate and forestall violence. It’s unclear who the third man is.
Metro has touted the multimillion-dollar security program as an integral resolution to its battle towards crime amid a surge in assaults all through the rail and bus system, whereas belief in regulation enforcement has waned. However the 2022 incident involving the 2 males and a latest indictment of the co-founder of a neighborhood group additionally affiliated with the neighborhood intervention specialist program has raised questions concerning the oversight of Metro’s plan.
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In January, Metro expanded its operation and awarded a three-year contract for almost $25 million to the Lee Andrews Group, a public relations agency, to handle Metro’s neighborhood intervention specialist program. The agency additionally manages Metro’s road groups — a gaggle the transit company has described as station greeters who usually distribute supplies, akin to PPE throughout the pandemic. That program enhances Metro’s sturdy transit ambassador groups, who additionally liaise with the general public.
These community-based packages have been proved to fight violence, Metro stated, crediting these groups with a “15% discount in violent crimes per boarding systemwide from 2023 to 2024” and a notable discount in violence alongside the Okay Line.
The Metro board directed the Lee Andrews Group to proceed working with neighborhood organizations to fight violence by deploying specialists to “scorching spots” all through the system. A type of teams was Creating Choices, co-founded by Eugene “Massive U” Henley, who’s described as a former gang member who turned a neighborhood advocate. Henley was indicted in March on federal costs of fraud, theft, extortion and working a racketeering conspiracy. Allegations towards Henley additionally included fraudulently acquiring funds by way of a gang discount and youth improvement program overseen by the L.A. mayor’s workplace.
Creating Choices obtained almost $2 million and stopped working with the Metro program March 25, Metro stated, “nearly instantly after information surfaced concerning the group’s management.”
A consultant for Henley couldn’t be reached for remark.
One other neighborhood group subcontracted by the Lee Andrews Group was In a position Options — the group affiliated with the boys within the video, Metro confirmed. Since 2022, the group has obtained greater than $3.2 million for its work with Metro and whereas the boys within the video had been faraway from the system and are not linked with Metro, the transit company stated the group stays affiliated.
In a position Options has not responded to requests for remark.
Metro’s Buyer Expertise Cupboard oversees this system, however the transit company doesn’t vet the teams concerned. That job falls to Lee Andrews Group and the neighborhood organizations, Metro stated. The teams are anticipated to recruit members who’ve “lived expertise with gangs, trauma or violence,” in accordance with the board report.
In response to Metro, In a position Options requires a background test of all people by way of the California Bureau of Safety and Investigative Providers’ guard card system and a state Division of Justice Reside Scan. The group additionally conducts a Megan’s Regulation search.
Lee Andrews’ vetting course of is “rooted in on-the-ground credibility,” Metro stated.
“They seek the advice of with native leaders, stakeholders and neighborhood coalitions to make sure that each particular person representing the venture has the required relationships, cultural competency and belief to function successfully and responsibly in delicate areas.”
Since 2022, Metro stated that eight individuals have been arrested who work as transit ambassadors, road group members and neighborhood intervention specialists. The packages have employed a mixed complete of almost 800 individuals.
Metro’s high safety officer in 2022, Gina Osborn, stated her division was not concerned within the oversight of the neighborhood intervention specialists or road groups and stated that she had raised issues over a scarcity of oversight.
“In case you have a public security ecosystem and also you talk about it publicly, why is the complete ecosystem not underneath one particular person? Why is it compartmentalized in such a method the place the precise hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing?”
Osborn sued Metro final yr over an allegation that the transit company fired her in retaliation for submitting a criticism with the Workplace of the Inspector Basic following a bus hijacking. The lawsuit described a tense relationship between Osborn and Metro Chief Govt Stephanie Wiggins over differing views on how Metro’s system needs to be secured.
Scott Decker, a professor emeritus at Arizona State College who has studied criminology and gang intervention, stated that public businesses’ collaborations with these a majority of these community-based packages has helped scale back crime in cities like Chicago. The information isn’t “reduce or dry” on the subject of assessing whether or not they work higher than regulation enforcement to forestall violence, Decker stated, however “there’s not a lot proof that reveals police are demonstrably higher.”
Metro on Thursday authorised a $9.4-billion funds that included a virtually 2% enhance for Metro’s public security funds. The neighborhood intervention specialist program is cited as a key precedence to the “multi-layered strategy” included underneath a virtually $400-million bucket.
Osborn had been crucial of how outdoors regulation enforcement patrolled the bus and rail system and pushed for extra in-house safety.
Earlier this month, Metro named its chief of the transit company’s new in-house police division that may oversee all of Metro’s security operations. Below a $193-million-a-year plan, sworn officers would work with Metro ambassadors and disaster intervention staffers, in addition to neighborhood intervention specialists.
