TriMet security measure sails through committee

In the Legislature • Bill headed for budget panel requires transit agency to report on crime-prevention efforts

By Steve Law

The Portland Tribune, Feb 7, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (38 Reader comments)

TriMet would be obligated to deliver annual reports to the Legislature on crime-prevention efforts along MAX lines, under a bill that passed unanimously Thursday in the Senate Transportation Committee.

The legislation, Senate Bill 1074, also provides $200,000 for Gresham to cover the costs of deploying two city police officers patrolling the light-rail lines.

The bill moves to the Legislature’s joint budget committee. The committee’s leaders have not identified the proposal as a funding priority, but the bill’s prime sponsor, Sen. Laurie Monnes Anderson, D-Gresham, was optimistic.

“I feel we have an actual chance of getting something,” she said after her bill sailed through its first legislative hurdle.

First TriMet report

There’s been a public outcry about crime along the MAX lines since the Nov. 3 beating of 71-year-old Laurie Lee Chilcote at a Gresham MAX station by a 15-year-old suspected gang member.

TriMet General Manager Fred Hansen provided a report on the transit agency’s crime-prevention efforts Thursday, as requested by Senate Transportation Committee Chairman Sen. Rick Metsger, D-Welches. It could be the first of what would become annual reports if the bill passes.

Committee members welcomed the initiatives TriMet has taken, but complained that Hansen was downplaying the crime problem and the number of freeloaders on MAX lines.

TriMet calculated there were 619 reported crimes along the MAX line in 2007, a 15 percent drop from the 727 crimes reported in 2006.

“The reported crimes on MAX or directly on our platforms were relative few,” Hansen testified. “They are about one per 100,000 riders.”

Sen. Bruce Starr, R-Hillsboro, said that was minimizing what is a serious problem, especially at night.

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