Finding full-time officers hard to come by, Metro is making a move to lure part-time police, with the hope more workers with fewer hours can meet the transit agency’s law enforcment demands.

“This is our best alternative because it is very difficult to get young people,” Metropolitan Transit Authority board member Jim Robinson said.

Metro’s board on Thursday approved the hiring of 20 part-time officers, as the agency attempts to address 23 vacant full-time positions. Thirteen of those positions will be filled once candidates complete the hiring process with Metro Police, or complete their training, Metro Police Chief Vera Bumpers said.

Part-time officers, often retired from other nearby police departments, can be hired and put on the streets more quickly. They also are easier to recruit, officials said, as higher paying departments attract most younger officers.

“When the economy is good … you don’t see as much competition to come into the public sector,” said Metro CEO Tom Lambert, a former transit police chief who started as an investigator with Metro 40 years ago, three years prior to the agency forming its own police department.

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Transit officials acknowledge they need to overcome some assumptions, including a few that even Metro leaders possess.

“It seems like every light rail route you are going to have an experience,” Metro board member Troi Taylor said, noting how often riders witness a crime or disruptive passengers.

Regular riders agree Metro needs more police visibility at stations and bus stops.

“There is police presence, but they are not there at the times of things,” said Kathryn Nowlin, a bus and MetroLift rider who often speaks to the board about disabled access issues along the transit system.

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Part-time officers will help Metro maintain police visibility at various stops, particularly at peak times, officials said.

“We are seeing more and more incidents out on the streets around here with the homeless population, possibly because of drugs,” Robinson said. “Just the mere presence deters a lot of things.”

Overall crime, however, is steady or declining according to Metro statistics. For the first five months of 2019, serious crimes — such as assaults, robberies and major thefts — increased to 192, up from 181 in January-to-May in 2018. Compared to the first five months of 2017, however, serious crimes are down slightly.

The decline is far more for less serious, so-called Part II crimes, Metro statistics show. For the first five months of 2019, petty crimes are down more than 55 percent to 399 incidents.

Officials said better deployment of the officers and fare inspectors — who are not police but empowered to enforce Metro’s ticketing rules on the light rail system — has led to some of the decline. To see further improvement, however, officials said they cannot simply add more fare inspectors, which are far less costly and require less training and equipment than certified officers.

“Dealing with perception, they are great tool,” said Tim Kelly, Metro’s executive vice-president of operations, public safety and customer service. “As far as crime, reducing crime and addressing it, it takes a police officer.”

dug.begley@chron.com