Portland Light Rail Crime
Published in Portland Tribune The Gresham Outlook, Feb 26, 2008, Updated Feb 27, 2008
Ten police officers may be added to MAX line
Agency plans new precinct to fight crime on east side
By Michael Ureel
The strong arm of the law will soon reach out to help fight crime on MAX light-rail lines in Gresham and the east side.
TriMet, the regional transit authority for the MAX and bus lines in the tri-county area, is expected to announce a new pilot program with the city of Gresham to fund a precinct dedicated to patrolling the east MAX line. The precinct is scheduled to open Tuesday, April 1, said Mayor Shane Bemis.
“I think they are pretty close to getting up to 10 new officers,” said Bemis. The details are still being worked out, he said, and a press conference is planned for Thursday, Feb. 28, at the Central transit terminal.
The pilot program is the result of talks with Gresham officials, as well as with west side cities Hillsboro and Beaverton, about ways to improve MAX safety.
“This is our first pilot project where we have a dedicated group of officers in an area,” said Mary Fetsch, TriMet communications director. “We’ve never done this precinct concept before, so we’ll see how it works.”
TriMet doesn’t have its own police force but utilizes and funds police from different jurisdictions who patrol all different areas of the MAX line. It would fund the officers for the new precinct, and the officers would come from a regional pool. TriMet currently is budgeted for 36 officers region-wide. TriMet is also starting a West Side police outpost with five new officers, to start in March.
“It’s a way of really getting people who know their community and having input on where the hotspots are that need patrolling,” said Fetsch.
The new precinct officers will patrol the MAX line from Gateway Terminal, east to the end of the line in Gresham. The 10 officers will be phased in over time.
“What’s great about this is, (this precinct) will not impact the police general fund or our police staffing levels,” said Gresham Police Chief Carla Piluso. “It’s a huge step.”
The beating of an elderly man in November created an outcry from residents about crime around the MAX line. According to a police study done last year, a large percentage of police calls originate from within a quarter mile of MAX terminals.
Region-wide, last year Gresham stations had 11 percent of total MAX crime, and the East Side MAX lines (from 42nd to 162nd) had 38 percent of the total, according to TriMet figures, which were up from 2006 figures.
Bemis took action last fall, assigning two Gresham officers to patrol the rail line.
“If you look at what our two officers have been able to do, up and down the lines, in a short amount of time that they’ve been working it, I think that they have made some real headway,” Bemis said.
Gresham will be reassigning the two officers it had patrolling the MAX line when the new precinct opens.
“I think it will bring the safety and perception of safety to the trains so that the right element will be comfortable riding the trains,” Piluso said.
The Oregon Senate recently approved a bill that would require TriMet to devote more attention to analyzing crimes committed on the MAX system.
House Bill 1074 requires the regional transit agency to report annually to the Legislature on crime problems on MAX trains, platforms and park-and-rides, and present information on the transit agency’s crime-prevention efforts.
Sen. Laurie Monnes Anderson, D-Gresham, was the prime sponsor of the bill. She is happy about the new Gresham precinct.
“I’m very supportive of this new MAX precinct,” Monnes Anderson said. “I truly believe that this is going to make a difference in the safety of our citizens out here who are riding MAX.”