“That’s when we put an end to Metro using our ORI,” he said.

Nations said no one had ever raised concerns about the citations.

“Our citation clerk, who has been in her position for 22 years, told me the court has never asked us to update our forms,” Nations wrote in a November 2015 response to the police chiefs.

Valid security complaints were trending up sharply at the end of last year, according to minutes from Bi-State’s Operations Committee meeting in January. Bi-State said those complaints were tabulated from customer phone calls and through social media channels.

Last spring, St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger doubled the number of officers patrolling MetroLink, using funds from a special sales tax. In Missouri, the MetroLink police unit has 38 county and eight city officers. All are under Melies’ command.

The increased manpower, at least in St. Louis County, has resulted in a 158 percent jump in arrests for so-called part two crimes in MetroLink facilities, which spiked from 172 in the year ending March 30, 2016 to 445 during the same period one year later, according to police data. Part two crimes include drunkenness, narcotics violations, disorderly conduct and prostitution.