Shootings raise safety concerns for MCTS buses and renewed calls for action
Two recent shootings connected to Milwaukee County Transit System buses have reignited a countywide debate over security for riders and bus drivers and how best to protect them, including whether to hire a team of rangers to board buses.
On Aug. 19, a shooting occurred at an MCTS bus stop near North 6th Street and West Wisconsin Avenue in Milwaukee's downtown. Five days later, police were searching for a man who shot a passenger on board a bus near West Capitol Drive and North Sherman Boulevard.
The two incidents have County Board Supervisors Peter Burgelis and Priscilla Coggs-Jones calling for action.
"The safety of our passengers and operators (bus drivers) is priority number one — always. These recent unfortunate incidents underscore the urgent need for enhanced security for MCTS,” Burgelis wrote in a statement. “We must act now for safer transit in Milwaukee County.”
Coggs Jones wrote: "We cannot afford to be passive and turn a blind eye to such violence."
MCTS has a $1.5 million contract with private security firm Allied Universal, which provides guards on some buses who can remove passengers but do not have police powers to make arrests.
During the 2023 budget cycle, the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors created the Transit Security & Safety Task Force dedicated to addressing transit security and safety and which would make a plan on how best to tackle those concerns by the 2024 cycle.
The most popular option is to introduce transit security rangers onto transit routes. The rangers would be county employees but would not fall under MCTS.
"The county must take responsibility for transit safety and security and fire its’ third-party vendor," Burgelis said. "Well-trained county employees are the best solution to professionally protect and serve."
But for bus operators safety concerns are nothing new. During the budget cycle in late 2022, bus operators, transit union members and mechanics spoke out about the conditions that the workers face, including frequent threats and assaults, health care costs, physical and mental burnout, poor staff retention, limited breaks and tight bus route schedules.
If a security incident occurs on a bus, bus operators are advised to contact an MCTS dispatcher. Depending on the nature of the call, Milwaukee police, medical personnel, security or a supervisor will be sent to their bus.
Donnell Shorter, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 998 (ATU 998), and his vice president, Michael Brown, have complained that MCTS undercounts reports of attacks against bus operators.
For Brown, it's important that whatever security option is approved must ultimately function separately from MCTS.
"I want it out of the hands of MCTS because of how they report incidents," he said. "There were a lot of incidents that went on went unknown."
Both Shorter and Brown spoke highly of having a ranger presence on buses.
"We can't always be reactive," Shorter told the Journal Sentinel. "We should be proactive at some point."
Supervisor Ryan Clancy, who heads the county's Judiciary, Law Enforcement and General Services committee, said while he'd prefer to invest in services that help tackle root causes of crime across Milwaukee, the option of introducing rangers is favorable.
"That's the sort of kind of common sense presence on buses and in transit areas, shelters and all that that will hopefully defer and discourage crime to begin with," he said.
The task force has forwarded its recommendations to the County Board. They are set to be taken up during the Committee on Transportation and Transit meeting on Sept. 5.
Contact Vanessa Swales at 414-308-5881 or vswales@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @Vanessa_Swales.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Shootings raise safety concerns for MCTS buses and calls for action
