Mass Transit - 42

BEST PRACTICES

Creating a Safer, More Secure Ride on
Metro Transit in the St. Louis Region
Officers from
the St. Louis
Metropolitan
Police Dept.
and St. Louis
County Police
Dept. in September working together to
enhance safety
of Metro
St. Louis riders.

By Taulby Roach
President and CEO of
Bi-State Development

ST. LOUIS * Metro Transit is
making vital progress toward
improving safety and security
on the main public transportation system serving the St. Louis
region. The progress made in recent months is a direct result of
unprecedented collaboration between multiple partners who share
the same mission to create a safer,
more secure transit experience.
A key milestone in the effort
came back in February with the
execution of a new joint security
New technology
agreement signed by top elected
is enhancing rail
officials and police departments
intrusion detection from the three key jurisdictions
systems
served by the St. Louis Metro
MassTransitmag.
Transit system. This is significom/21161093
cant because we provide transit
service in a 600-square-mile area
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that includes the city of St. Louanalytics can
is, St. Louis County, Mo. and St.
enhance security,
health, safety and
Clair County, Ill., which means
efficiency of transit we serve customers in more
systems
than 100 different municipalities
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spread across two states in these
com/21161096
three distinct jurisdictions.
It can be a challenge to get buyin from elected leaders representing the interests of three different
jurisdictions along with their three
distinct police departments. Ultimately though, all ended up signing a new security agreement that
outlined the framework for providing transit riders with a safer,
more secure and more comfortable
trip on transit. The framework was
developed by a third party, which

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Mass Transit | MassTransitmag.com | NOVEMBER 2020

St. Louis Metro

used input from several peer transit agencies as part of the assessment process. The agreement was
the product of two years of hard
work and collaboration between
St. Louis Metro Transit, Bi-State
Development, East-West Gateway Council of Governments,
WSP, St. Louis County, city of St.
Louis, St. Clair County and St.
Louis Metro's law enforcement
partners at the St. Louis County
Police Department, the St. Clair
County Sheriff's Department
and the St. Louis Metropolitan
Police Department.
We are eight months into the
implementation phase and are seeing great progress that illustrates
our safety and security approach
could become a best practice model for other transit systems.
We continue to work closely with our partners to further
strengthen regional collaboration, enhance overall security
measures on the transit system
and regain the confidence of our
riders. Our collaborative foundation has focused on industry
best practices, a layered security

approach, building a zoned deployment along the MetroLink
light-rail alignment with clearly
defined roles and responsibilities for each component, as well
as comprehensive training. The
different layers consist of contracted security provided by
G4S Solutions, Metro Transit
Public Safety, the three primary
law enforcement agencies and a
robust secondary off-duty policing program in both Missouri
and Illinois.
Having the right tools, in the
hands of the right people, with the
right training is working for us.
The most recent security scorecard
created quarterly by WSP shows
we are making progress with the
help of our partners. Of course,
there is always room for improvement. You can follow our progress
here: https://www.ewgateway.org/
transportation-planning/corridor-planning-metrolink/metro-security/.
Taulby Roach is president and CEO
of Bi-State Development, which
operates the St. Louis Metro Transit
system as one of its enterprises.

http://MassTransitmag.com/21161093 http://MassTransitmag.com/21161096 https://www.ewgateway.org/transportation-planning/corridor-planning-metrolink/metro-security http://www.MassTransitmag.com

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