Many people may not know this, but law enforcement on the Metro Blue Line in Long Beach, is NOT the responsibility of the Long Beach Police Department (LBPD). Rather, this arduous task for every part of the Metro light rail system – from Red to Gold to Blue to Green to Purple and Metro – are all under the purview of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department (LASD).
This results in stretched resources across several different stations throughout Los Angeles County, forcing some stations to lack the adequate policing resources needed to meet safety standards.
Utilizing the LBPD at the eight Long Beach stations would vastly improve law enforcement’s ability to patrol and enforce existing traffic laws, while alleviating the LASD resources to focus on key areas outside of Long Beach. In fact, according to an LA Metro Staff report, the multi-agency model would improve Long Beach response time from 14 minutes to less than five minutes and would also ease concerns of police visibility and responsiveness to incidents at stations.
To increase the confidence level and ease safety concerns, LBPD must gain the authority from the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Board to patrol the Blue Line.
The Downtown Long Beach Alliance (DLBA) urges you to join us as we encourage the MTA Board to move forward with shifting the responsibilities of Metro station safety, security, and law enforcement duties from the Sheriff’s Department to the Los Angeles and Long Beach Police Departments, in their respective cities, at the February 23 MTA Board meeting.
This is a pressing matter to Downtown Long Beach, as four the eight Blue Line stations within Long Beach are located in our Downtown. Nearly 20% of riders going northbound access the Blue Line at one of the four Downtown stations, and nearly 24% of riders heading southbound, exit at one of those same four Downtown stations.
Below you will find templates of letters you can either send via email or USPS to Mayor Garcia and Los Angeles County Supervisor Hahn, both of whom serve on the Metro Board and will be voting on this issue at their February 23 meeting.
Click Here to send a letter of support to Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia and Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn via the LA Metro Board Secretary.
or email directly to Metro Board Secretary at jacksonm@metro.net
Your letters, emails, tweets, and social media posts make a difference. Showing your support for increased safety on the Blue Line helps get our collective message across to the MTA Board, which will result in positive impacts for Long Beach and our Downtown.