RTD Chooses Transit Police for Security on Red Line : Safety: LAPD bid, $4 million higher, is rejected. The transit officers have struggled to overcome an image as a second-class force.

By NORA ZAMICHOW

Dec. 18, 1992 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Transportation officials on Thursday selected the RTD transit police to patrol the Red Line subway, passing up an LAPD bid that would have cost $4 million more.

Several transit officials said they were reluctant to add to an existing imbalance in the amount of money spent on security for bus passengers and rail riders. Currently, the Rapid Transit District spends 3 cents per bus passenger and $1.25 per rail passenger on security.

“This kind of inequity is criminal, it’s wrong--I cannot support the LAPD proposal,” RTD board member Antonio Villaraigosa said before the vote. “Maybe we could use that $4 million and put it toward bus security.”

The transit police and the Los Angeles Police Department competed in an increasingly heated race for the contract to patrol the 4.4 miles of subway tracks and stations. LAPD officials had estimated that one year of service would require 56 officers at a cost of $6 million--or 20 officers and $4 million more than the transit police bid.

The victory was even sweeter for Transit Police Chief Sharon Papa because her agency lost a similar contest two years ago to the Sheriff’s Department for the contract to patrol the Blue Line. Then, as now, transit police struggled to overcome the image that they are second-class police officers.

“I’m thrilled,” Papa said. “They have finally put some support behind their own police department.”

Proponents of the city’s new rail and subway systems have long maintained that good security is essential to attracting riders. To make the system succeed, they say, passengers must believe that they will be safe when they forgo their cars and trundle underground.

Neil Peterson, executive director of the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission, said he was disappointed by the vote.

“The most important thing is the perception the rider has of how secure they are,” Peterson said. “I don’t think there’s any question about it. The LAPD can do a better job.”

The $4-million difference between the two bids was a result of the difference in the numbers of officers that each agency would put in the subways, LAPD officials said, as well as the LAPD’s higher administrative costs. Under the $2.2-million plan adopted Thursday, Papa intends to use 36 officers who have been preparing for the last two years.

Thursday’s decision comes only three weeks before the Red Line is expected to open.

The RTD’s choice of its own transit police to patrol the Red Line will be reviewed by the LACTC, which will decide whether to fund the contract next month. In the meantime, transit police will continue patrolling.

In February, the RTD and the Transportation Commission will merge and become the Metropolitan Transit Authority. Thursday, RTD officials had two options: contract with the LAPD for one year and allow the new MTA to make its own decision about security, or use transit police.

Marv Holen, RTD board president, said the decision “was of great significance because it helps define the MTA for the future. It establishes a dedicated transit security.”

“We have a department that is given the responsibility for security,” said Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alatorre, an RTD board member. “It’s unconscionable to say to the men and women (of the transit police) that this is not a reflection against you, but we decided” on the LAPD.