Photo: Aurelia Ventura / Impremedia/Real America News
For: Manuel Ocaño / Special for Real America News Updated 15 Apr 2022, 16: 13 pm EDT
The Los Angeles County Sheriff, Alex Villanueva, took advantage of the commotion generated by the attack in the New York subway to press for the renewal of a contract with the Los Angeles transportation system.
The sheriff said that his department could remove all the officers who serve in the subway if the next contract is not given to the office of the sheriff full authority.
“We are going to negotiate the entire contract; We are not going to negotiate in parts”, said Villanueva.
In a conference in which he was asked his opinion on the attack and shooting in the New York subway, which left 20 people injured by firearms, the sheriff responded that he has a great need in other positions for the officers assigned to guard the subway, if he is not renews the contract in the terms required.
I add that an order to freeze the hiring of new recruits, the sheriff’s department has a deficit of about 1,000 agents, so you can easily reassign those now are dedicated to taking care of the subway with limited authority.
When talking about the 300 assigned officers in the subway, the chief of the Los Angeles sheriff’s office said “I have three jobs waiting for each of them”.
“I have the c capacity and the need to redeploy staff where they are actually going to be serving as sworn law enforcement officers who work as police officers, save lives, prevent crimes from occurring, and solve crimes that do occur. This is all about public safety,” said Villanueva.
He explained that the contract proposal for his office is $30 millions cheaper than current Metro police contracts. But he said that a full enforcement authority will be required in the transit system and that the issue “is not negotiable.”
Currently surveillance of the Metro is run by the Los Angeles Sheriff and the Los Angeles and Long Beach Police Departments; Villanueva wants only his department to be in charge of surveillance, but also with full authority.
At the end of last year, the subway board increased its budget for security and surveillance, but preferred a public safety approach based on security guards to respond to basic conduct violations, rather than armed law enforcement.
The change of optics was registered as a result of the death of George Floyd, which triggered a national reassessment on security and surveillance.
Sheriff Villanueva did not mention this new trend, but it painted a picture of danger for subway users.
Villanueva spoke of recent high-profile crimes in the subway system, including homeless people pushing people in front of oncoming trains, shootings aboard trains, a recent knife attack at Willowbrook Station and a recent case of a homeless person who died on a train but was not discovered for about six hours.
The Los Angeles Police Department, which shares in part the surveillance in the subway, refrained from responding directly to Sheriff Villanueva on these incidents, but clarified its position in a message on its Twitter account:
“The safety of MTA passengers has not lost importance to the LAPD. The men and women of the LAPD monitor trains, platforms and buses carefully every day around the clock.”
Continued, “This is evident when comparing pre-pandemic violent crime of 2019 to 032216 to date, since there is a decrease of 22 percent. This specifically translates into 47 fewer victims of a violent crime,” police said.
He added that “we continue to collaborate with the MTA, various employee unions, Amtrak and our law enforcement counterparts in LASD and Long Beach.”
But who did respond directly to Sheriff Villanueva was Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solís:
Solís explained that “the politicization of shooting in the Brooklyn subway by the sheriff is beyond the limits when we should guarantee the safety of our passengers and employees”.
De According to the supervisor, “Metro’s action to award a contract to three law enforcement agencies, the Long Beach Police Department, the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department were taken for improve law enforcement response.”
He added that the Sheriff’s statement to remove his deputies if the department does not get the full contract with the subway it should alarm everyone.
“Not only would it be wrong, but you would essentially be underfunding your own department if you are not awarded a single contract,” Solís emphasized.