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TCPSD Officer Interest Form
Metro’s Board of Directors took a historic step in June when they approved the creation of Metro’s Transit Community Public Safety Department, or TCPSD, which will be dedicated to keeping Metro’s employees and riders on the transit system safe. This isn’t a new idea – in fact, this move is 30 years in the making.
Designed specifically to address the complex issues faced on transit, the Metro TCPSD will go far beyond providing law enforcement to address crime. It will introduce a fresh, new public safety model that puts people at the center and addresses quality of life issues that have become so prevalent in cities and transit systems across the country. You can read more about our implementation plan here.
Key to the TCPSD’s success will be hiring public safety staff who are passionate about transit and understand our customers – and that’s where the Metro family comes in.
Over the next five years, we will be hiring more than 600 sworn police officers to staff the Department. Sworn police officers will be specially trained in the transit security environment and will go through police academy training to become a certified peace officer in the State of California.
If you have an interest in becoming a sworn member of the TCPSD, please fill out the form below, and we’ll keep you posted as we get closer to officer recruitment.
Frequently Asked Questions
Metro’s TCPSD is Metro’s Transit Community Public Safety Department. The new department is comprised of sworn police officers that will be specially trained and dedicated to the Metro system, along with transit security officers and crisis intervention specialists. Once the TCPSD is established, our agency will have direct oversight over law enforcement operations, deployment, and staffing on our system:
- TCPSD Officers will know the Metro system inside and out. We will be able to ensure transit specific training for officers to foster a deep knowledge of our operations, standards, values, and goals and officers will have a personal stake in Metro’s success.
- TCPSD will have a network for better communication between the ROC/BOC and public safety teams. We will be able to communicate with our officers more quickly, so that we can allocate them the resources they need. This can also mean coordinating their responses with other public safety care-based teams working across our system, such as Ambassadors, and homeless outreach personnel.
- TCPSD service will be consistent. We will be able to ensure that our policies are followed consistently across our 1,447-mile service area.
It will take time to set up and staff Metro’s TCPSD. In June, 2024, the Board approved our plan to implement Metro’s TCPSD over a five-year period.
- Starting now, in Year 1, we will establish a transition team, develop standard operating procedures for the department, and hire a Chief of Police and an administrative support team.
- In Year 2, we will begin to recruit and train Metro TCPSD officers and personnel, leveraging expertise from other transit agencies who have in-house police departments.
- By the end of year 5, we plan to have Metro TCPSD officers and personnel trained and have full deployment onto the system.
The Los Angeles PD, the LA Sheriff’s Department, and Long Beach PD will not immediately withdraw from the system. You will still see officers on the system responding to calls and providing safety. Over the next five years, we will review annually how to reduce existing external law enforcement personnel how quickly we can hire and train TCPSD officers to help us keep you and our riders safe. We’re thankful for the work of our law enforcement partners on our system, and we look forward to continuing to collaborate and work with them during this transition to keep everyone safe.
In the meantime, we will continue improving the existing public safety strategy aligned around our three safety imperatives:
- Increasing the visible presence of uniformed personnel. We are deploying more uniformed personnel throughout the system to deter crime and provide immediate assistance to riders and employees,
- Enhancing access control. We are improving access control to ensure the system is used solely for its intended purpose. By strengthening security measures, we aim to prevent unauthorized use and maintain a safe environment for everyone; and
- Strengthening partnerships to address quality of life issues. We are continuing to partner with the County, the Cities, and Regional Agencies to address issues such as homelessness, untreated mental illness and drug addiction. In the last year, Metro has moved over 2,100 people into housing off the Metro system (June 2023-June 2024).These partnerships are crucial in creating a comprehensive approach to safety.
