Police respond to the Hollywood Transit Center in Northeast Portland after two people were killed and a third injured in a stabbing on a MAX train in May 2017. (Jim Ryan/The Oregonian)

By EVERTON BAILEY JR. and ELLIOT NJUS

The Oregonian | OregonLive





In the weeks after the deadly attack last May on the MAX Green Line, TriMet ramped up its security presence, hiring extra private security officers and paying for overtime police patrols.



The MAX system still saw more violent acts and other major security incidents in 2017 than any year since TriMet began reporting to the Federal Transit Administration in 2008, even without counting the deadly stabbings.



TriMet's own crime statistics for 2017, released Wednesday, showed 63 reports of aggravated assault against customers, an increase of 43 percent. Reports of simple assault, resulting in minor or no injuries, climbed 81 percent, to 168.



There were also 922 reported property crimes, including theft and vandalism, which represented an 18 percent increase.



Half of those crimes occurred on the MAX system, while about a quarter occurred on buses. The rest occurred in other locations, including Park & Rides and other TriMet properties.



Crime against TriMet employees also climbed. They included six cases of aggravated assault, 26 cases of simple assault and 23 cases of intimidation.



Part of the increase might be attributable to increased reporting from riders in the wake of the May attack, officials said, and it also reflects an uptick in crime throughout the community. And the numbers work out to about one criminal offense per 100,000 trips, which TriMet officials characterized as low for a transit system.



Nonetheless, the agency is outlining plans to increase security measures.

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Multnomah County Deputy Jason Maurry, a member of the transit police division, patrols downtown Portland in May 2018. Maurry has been a deputy since 2003 and has spent nearly a total of ten years part of the transit police, which helps enforce the law on TriMet buses and MAX trains. (Everton Bailey Jr./Staff)

"We need to do better, and we are going to do better," said Harry Saporta, TriMet's executive director for safety and security.



Other issues persist for riders. Some who have experienced violent or harassing encounters on MAX say they've seen little action from the transit agency. Still others have accused TriMet of militarizing its security force and unfairly targeting people of color.



TriMet plans to add a new unarmed private security force aimed at de-escalating altercations that arise on transit during the next year. This summer, it will roll out a new text message system and onboard silent alarm-style buttons to give riders more options for reporting incidents without drawing attention.

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Multnomah County Deputy Jason Maurry, a member of the transit police division, patrols the Hollywood Transit Center in Northeast Portland in May 2018, a year after 2 men were killed and a third was injured in stabbings on a MAX train there. (Everton Bailey Jr./The Oregonian)

On a recent day, Multnomah County Sheriff's Deputy Jason Maurry awaited an arriving MAX train at the Hollywood Transit Center and helped check the fares of about a half-dozen riders.



Maurry is part of the Transit Police Division, a detail made of up of police officers from throughout the TriMet service area who keep an eye on the system in close-in Portland, including the busiest segments of the MAX.



He conducts welfare checks, looks for misbehavior, and enforces TriMet code. But a large part of the job, he said, is simply being seen.



Though the typical calls transit officers respond to have been thefts and disturbances, he said he's seen more cases of people with knives. Calls involving transit riders with apparent mental illnesses also appear to be on the rise, according to Maurry: "It's probably the biggest change I've seen since being a police officer."



Saporta, the TriMet security director, said he didn't know if increased security could have prevented the stabbings last May, but said the agency could have been more proactive in the months since. It expects several new initiatives to be in place this year.

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TriMet's new text-based system won't take the place of a 911 call, but it will allow help to reach distressed riders more quickly when it comes online this summer, he said.



Additionally, TriMet plans to install more security cameras on buses, MAX trains and platforms, with higher image quality. It also plans to expand its corps of private security guards, contracted through the British firm G4S, and add six officers and a sergeant to its Transit Police Division.



Another major expansion of its security personnel would come from a contract with Portland Patrol Inc., a private security company contracted by the Portland Business Alliance to provide patrol services downtown. The "transit peace officers" would be former law enforcement officers who do not carry weapons but who would be trained in de-escalation and able to write tickets for TriMet code violations. The agency said in January that it hopes to have as many as 50 such security officers by 2020.

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Beth Nakamura/The Oregonian

The proposal's been controversial. TriMet has delayed negotiating the contract in part because of the concerns of community groups that have criticized TriMet's approach to security.



Groups like nonprofit OPAL Environmental Justice Oregon have accused TriMet of militarizing its security force, focusing too much on fare-enforcement activities and unfairly targeting people of color.



"The people who are doing the enforcement, who are doing security, have to be able to view all of us the same," said Nicole Phillips, an OPAL board member. "We have to all be viewed as people worthy of their protection. One person can't be more important than the other."



OPAL has proposed its own security program: a group of "rider ambassadors" modeled loosely after a volunteer program that was suspended in 2009.

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Commuters ride a TriMet MAX train in downtown Portland in October 2016. (The Oregonian/File)

As it stands, some riders say police and the transit agency fail to follow up on threats and harassment.



Anky Guchait, a 23-year-old Portland State University graduate, said TriMet officials haven't contacted her since she reported a man had taunted her and her parents with racial slurs and spit on her mom on the MAX Green Line in downtown Portland last year.



The incident occurred June 15, a little more than two weeks after the fatal stabbings on the same MAX line. Guchait said the operator never responded when she pressed an alert button several times. She called 911 and flagged down police, but the man had already left by the time they arrived. Portland police didn't take a report.



Guchait filed a complaint with TriMet on June 21. When she got no response, she reported the encounter to Portland State's public safety office on July 14. A campus police officer arrested Steven Klopp about a week later. He eventually pleaded guilty to second-degree intimidation and was sentenced to a year and half in prison for violating probation for an earlier crime.



Guchait, who was born in India, said she followed up with TriMet in November. No one explained why the agency never responded to her initial complaint, but she asked to complete another form to document discriminatory behavior.



She said she hasn't heard from TriMet since. She still takes the MAX but now sits in same car as the operator to ensure she can get an employee's attention in an emergency.



"I think if someone makes a complaint, they should know if it is being taken care of properly or not," Guchait said.

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Commuters pass through the Gateway Transit Center in Portland on a stormy evening in June 2013. (The Oregonian/File)

Another rider, Charlotte Lumae of Forest Grove, was on a Blue Line train with her mother in January when a man told them to stop talking. When they declined, the man replied, "Do you want to be raped and murdered tonight?"



The women alerted the operator, who contacted police. The man left when the train stopped, but was detained at another station. He wasn't arrested. Lumae said a Transit police officer told her it would have violated the man's First Amendment rights.



"They said their hands were tied," she said. "They shouldn't think that if they're well-trained police. They should know better."



It wasn't until Lumae met in person with a Washington County assistant district attorney that charges were filed. The man was later arrested was convicted in March of menacing. The man has not been barred from riding TriMet, the agency said.

Commander Sara Westbrook, who leads the Transit Police Division, said it's common for police to consult with the district attorney's office before making an arrest in the case of threats, and that their priority at the scene is to separate the people involved.

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-- Everton Bailey Jr.

ebailey@oregonian.com

503-221-8343

@EvertonBailey

-- Elliot Njus

enjus@oregonian.com

503-294-5034

@enjus