Riders of the L.A. Metro are begging for more police officers, but County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath thinks she has a better solution to the crime and chaos rampant on county buses and trains: security ambassadors.
Horvath and her colleagues on the powerful Board of Supervisors — known colloquially as the “five little queens” — recently decided to allocate $40 million of their public safety budget on ambassadors, who don’t carry firearms and cannot detain criminals or make arrests.
As WeHoans can recall, it’s not the first time Horvath has led the push to move funds away from sworn law enforcement agents in favor of the privatized quasi-police force owned and operated by the Block by Block company at the behest of City Hall.
We held an official launch of the Metro Ambassador pilot program today at Union Station! More than 260 Metro Ambassadors have been trained & deployed on our system — they’re here to answer questions, connect riders to resources and report issues. pic.twitter.com/a9slJNVZAf
— Metro Los Angeles (@metrolosangeles) March 6, 2023
As a West Hollywood City Councilmember last year, Horvath led the push to reduce the city’s funding of the Sheriff’s Department, which left residents with two fewer deputies on patrol, while hiring an additional 30 ambassadors to shuffle homeless people around and give out driving directions.
The ambassadors’ ability to bolster public safety on buses and trains remains to be seen, although anecdotal evidence — like this recent Reddit post, claiming ambassadors did nothing to stop a man smoking crack on the subway — is not not encouraging.
Metro Ambassadors intentionally avoid a man smoking a crack pipe on the Red Line.
by u/405freeway in LosAngeles
Metro Ambassadors intentionally avoid a man smoking a crack pipe on the Red Line.
by u/405freeway in LosAngeles
There were 1,385 reported incidents of narcotics use, possession or sales last year, and complaints from riders about nearly doubled.
While Supervisor Horvath has popped on the Metro for photo ops to promote the new policy, regular riders are far less enthusiastic about the state of L.A. public transportation.
“Safety from crime” was the No. 1 improvement riders requested when surveyed last October. Rapes, aggravated assaults, robberies and murders increased by nearly 25% from 2021 to 2022.
The “alternative policing” ethos Horvath brought to West Hollywood is a road to nowhere for the entire Los Angeles County public transportation system.
As a Los Angeles County Supervisor and Metro Board Member, it’s so important to actually understand & experience the systems we’re entrusted to lead.
I’m committing to riding @metrolosangeles regularly, & I’m encouraging all of my colleagues to do the same.
All aboard! 🚌🚌🚌 pic.twitter.com/ttp8MfqAPX
— Lindsey P. Horvath (@LindseyPHorvath) March 9, 2023
One of the things I admire most about Democrats is their unwavering consistency in policy. Every idea is a bad idea. They hurt the very people they claim to advocate for. Anyone watching 60 seconds of these videos would know the thought of security ambassadors is laughable. Does this idiot really believe that for a salary of 60K/year someone would put their life at risk? Welcome to the new world disorder.
Brandon, the sheriff is NOT the police. They are not, by statute, criminal but rather civil law enforcement. They are not even the correct agency to contract for police services. Stop being the lapdog for the sheriff.
Where do you get such a misguided idea? The Sheriff’s Department is THE designated police agency in unincorporated County. This is by operation of state law and is true in all 58 counties in California.
The Sheriff is also THE police / law enforcement agency contracted by many cities who choose not to maintain their own police departments (like WeHo) and other jurisdictions (like METRO) in the County.
[…] is leading the push to draw down funding for law enforcement on the L.A. Metro in favor of security ambassadors and social service agents. 0 0 votesArticle […]
Most of the cops that are already hired by metro just sit in their patrol cars. I’m all for having police on the system, but we’re paying them way too much and not seeing them in the buses and on the trains.
Cops dont ride busses or subways and only show up after a crime has been committed. And when they do show up they send out several squad cars and the cops end up standing around for an hour chit chatting or staring at their phones.
How does adding more cops solve anything.
Well, go rise the subway/bus around town. There’s no cops there now. Should be a magical place of wonder and delight, right?
Sometimes living in L.A. for long period of time, you see stuff like this and you swear you’re slipping into the Twilight Zone.
All the ambassadors do is move people to a safe zone or another car. Read this LA times article to see how bad it is.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-03-14/horror-the-deadly-use-of-drugs-on-metro-trains
Maybe Horvath is doing the best she can–she’s just severely incompetent due to her ignorance and self-serving biases.
Would love to know how her law and order supervisor platform supports security ambassadors… of course once a lair, always a lair. Just get elected and change your spots. LMAO. Here we go…
10 years ago I was a regular user of public transportation. Busses and trains as needed, extensively across Metro region. Oh how I wished for the purple line extension and the other lines to weho etc to be build.
No longer. ’80s Beverly Hills had the right idea. Oh for another Waxman to to prevent their spread. They’ll bring nothing but evil in their wake when they are built, short of a transformation in criminal justice and the political structures of LA County
only a lunatic would set foot on the metro in this city.
So let me get this straight. The metro is a lawless hellhole, so she wants less law enforcement. How do these people get elected?!!!