The Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office could take over managing TriMet’s transit police division until June 30, 2025 under a new intergovernmental agreement.
The Board of Commissioners are scheduled to vote on the agreement at their regular meeting, Thursday, March 18. Multnomah County Sheriff Mike Reese,TriMet Executive Director of Safety and Security Marla Blagg, and Transit Equity Director John Gardner laid out the plan at the regular County Board briefing March 9.
TriMet transit police and contracted security oversee public safety on the bus, MAX and WES lines in Multnomah, Washington, and Clackamas Counties. TriMet began the process of evaluating its public safety model for transit in early 2019 with the goal of a newly negotiated agreement between local law enforcement partners in January 2020.
After the murder of George Floyd and national re-examination of policing, TriMet paused its process. Staff held listening sessions and conducted a regional community survey, as well as, compiled data and created a Blue Ribbon Committee to assess and make recommendations on the future of law enforcement connected to transit public safety models.
Under the proposed agreement, the Multnomah County Sheriff would take over the business administration for the police, overseeing transit police precincts, supervision of daily operations and selection and deployment of officers and deputies. The County would pay the costs of salaries, insurance, cell phones, etc. and bill TriMet for those fees and services.
“Public safety work today is demanding as expectations are high,” Sheriff Reese says.
“To ensure our members are prepared for this challenging work, we remain committed to a cycle of policy development, training, operational practices, and systems of accountability. This will certainly apply to our management of the transit police division.”
The County anticipates TriMet would budget $82 million to fund the division over seven years, or about $12 million a year. That would cover the County’s portion of up to $2 million as well provide dedicated funding for creating new pilot programs, livability issues and resource partnerships.
The City of Portland had managed the division previously, but ended the Portland Police Bureau’s longstanding contract with TriMet in 2019 and withdrew its 32 officers. Since then transit police staffing has dropped significantly, while public safety incidents have increased, a trend that Blagg says is concerning.
Since 2019, assaults on TriMet staff have increased by 53%, says Blagg.
A recent survey of 13,000 TriMet riders found that 45% felt unsafe due to a lack of police presence compared to 29% who said that police presence made them feel unsafe. Sixty-three percent of responders 65 years and older said they were more likely to feel unsafe due to a lack of police presence as were 55% of Black and 48% of responders who were people of color.
“The perception is that when there’s not some form of transit police presence... females, limited English proficient communities, seniors, and yes people of color feel less safe riding public transit without some form of presence,” says Gardner.
Additionally 94% of customer complaints wanted more security because they did not feel comfortable riding at night. 62% of frontline employees said that state transit police help them feel safe.
Other community members, including people of color, have said uniformed officers do not make them feel safe.
Commissioner Lori Stegmann requested more information on safety data that specifically looked at the relationship between transit police presence and rider safety, especially for riders of color who are often disproportionately targeted by police.
“For me it’s about threading the needle and balancing actual safety for the public versus police presence,” Commissioner Stegmann said.
“Feeling (safe) and being (safe) are two different things. In order for me to have a full picture, I have to know that what we’re doing is actually resulting in positive community outcomes.”
Commissioner Susheela Jayapal echoed those sentiments, asking for a more substantial demographic breakdown of the 29% of riders who felt unsafe because of police presence as well as the ‘other’ demographic, pointing out that 25% of responders also cited reasons not listed on the form as making them feel unsafe.
“Including ‘presence of transit police’, if you add the ‘other’ (category) to that, you end up with the majority,” she said.
Chair Deborah Kafoury thanked Sheriff Reese, Blagg, and Gardner for their hard work and for the “thorough and productive conversation.”
“I appreciate that we’re having to make some decisions... while trying to figure out what role we play in guiding those future conversations to ensure that our community members not only feel safe, but are safe,” she said.
The Board of Commissioners will vote to approve or reject the intergovernmental agreement on March 18.