Regional Transit security makeover focuses on in-house guards with authority to write tickets

Commuters pushed past the podium at the 16th Street light-rail station, oblivious to the scrum of transit leaders and press waiting to hear about Sacramento Regional Transit’s planned security makeover.

SacRT officials announced June 9 that 30 new transit agents were being hired, following two years of public outcry surrounding the agency’s contract with private security firm G4S Security Solutions, the third-largest employer in the world.

A combination of factors—including SacRT’s light-rail image, expiration of the G4S contract, pressure from a union that wanted those security jobs back and activist groups that criticized G4S’ human rights record abroad—seemed to influence the decision.

According to Amalgamated Transit Union 1575 President Ralph Niz, the RT Board of Directors approached his union about making the shift. “We still have a ways to go, but at least we’re in the right direction,” Niz said.

Dozens of groups lobbied RT to cut ties with G4S for nearly two years. The company has been repeatedly accused of human rights violations at for-profit prisons and migrant detention centers in the United States, United Kingdom, Palestine and elsewhere.

G4S was also fined by Florida last year for citing a retired psychologist’s evaluations on 1,500 forms that allowed employees to carry firearms, including Omar Mateen, who gunned down 49 people and wounded 58 others at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando last June.

Last week, RT announced its separation from the global security firm, whose local employees were assigned to Sacramento’s light-rail trains to report misdeeds and act as visual deterrents. These security agents lacked the authority to write tickets, however, and RT’s union staff objected to the privatization of its security workers.

RT’s decision to build up its in-house security personnel will provide increased fare enforcement and is estimated to save $200,000, say officials. A smaller, local security company was also hired in May to provide supplemental guards.

RT officials touted safety as the key driver of the changes.

According to Wendy Williams, RT’s new director of marketing and public relations, only six supervisors could check fares before a year ago. G4S’ contract was reduced by half and 27 in-house transit agents were brought on, which lead to the additional moves announcement this month.

“Our in-house agents have been so successful checking fares, we decided to bring more in,” Williams said. “We saw a huge increase in our revenue despite not seeing an increase of ridership.”

Additional surveillance, totaling 2,000 cameras, and a new public announcement system were also announced. The PA system allows RT staff to interact with riders in real time if they see something amiss on security feeds, or want to pass along information.

“We’re bringing a little voice of God here,” quipped RT board member Jay Schenirer, a Sacramento councilman.

With the addition of a new Paid Fare Zone program that fences off a section of each station, fare evasion fell from roughly 18 to 5 percent over the last year, added RT Chairman Andy Morin, also Folsom’s mayor. That change required more fare checks.

Critics still want RT to hire only contractors without records or allegations of abuse. RT Chief Counsel Tim Spangler struck that idea down in a public meeting last December, since companies could protest RT’s decision, forcing the agency to prove alleged violations. Also tying RT’s hands are the rules of the Federal Transit Administration, a major RT benefactor, Spangler said.