Bus operators are being encouraged to call police and stop the vehicle at the first sign of disruptive behavior as part of a plan to curb violence on public transit, the Maryland Transit Administration announced yesterday.
Responding to a series of assaults recently on its buses in Baltimore, the MTA also said it would step up patrols by its police force and forge a closer working relationship with the Baltimore Police Department and the city school system.
Among other steps, the MTA plans to speed notification of city officers when an incident occurs on a bus or other transit facilities in the city. Under this change, city police would receive word of 911 calls involving MTA facilities at the same time as the transit agency's police force so the closest unit could respond.
FOR THE RECORD - An article in Friday's editions of The Sun incorrectly stated the congressional district of U.S. Rep. Elijah E. Cummings. The congressman represents Maryland's 7th District.
The Sun regrets the error.
"Whoever gets there first," said MTA Police Chief David C. Franklin. "It's not about egos. It's about making the system safe."
At a news conference at the Mondawmin Mall Transit Center, MTA Administrator Paul J. Wiedefeld described what he called a "comprehensive approach to disruptive behavior," called Operation: Safe Transport.
"We want to reassure citizens we have taken strong measures to protect public transit users," he said.
Wiedefeld was joined at the news conference by Franklin, city Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings and state Sen. Catherine E. Pugh.
As part of the plan, the MTA will take new steps to keep buses without working video surveillance cameras off the streets, said MTA spokeswoman Jawauna Greene.
Most MTA buses have surveillance, but the camera on the bus that was the scene of the most violent of the recent incidents was not working, according to government sources.
Greene would not confirm that the MTA has no video record of the Dec. 4 incident in which a 26-year-old woman was severely injured in Hampden when she was beaten and kicked by a group of middle-school students. But she said the agency has changed its procedures for dealing with nonworking cameras since the incident, which is being investigated as a possible racial hate crime.
"Recent events have highlighted that this is an important part of our security initiative," she said.
Previously, if an operator coming on duty found that a camera was broken, he or she would write a repair order for the next time the bus was due for maintenance, Greene said.
