Clevelanders for Public Transit and Black Spring CLE Call for transit ambassadors to replace police
By Dana Beveridge
Last night over 50 people joined a virtual town hall hosted by Clevelanders for Public Transit and Black Spring CLE. Issues concerning public safety on the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority were discussed, including the use of transit ambassadors as an alternative to transit police. Transit ambassadors have been used by transit agencies around the country as a safe and constitutional alternative to transit police.
Cleveland Municipal Judge Emanuella Groves and attorney James Hardiman attended and participated in a discussion about Judge Groves 2017 court decision ruling RTA’s policy of using armed police to conduct fare enforcement as unconstitutional. Ward 17 Cleveland City Council member Charles Slife also attended. Although members of the GCRTA Board of Trustees and staff were invited to attend, they did not participate.
Riders who attended also shared their experiences with transit police, demonstrating that increased policing does not equate to improved safety. Instead, many riders shared examples that demonstrated harassment and targeting of riders of color and low-income or unhoused riders.
In October 2017, Judge Groves handed down a court decision acquitting a rider charged with fare evasion (a criminal offense in Cleveland) after he couldn’t produce a fare card when stopped by transit police. In her ruling, Judge Groves held that fare enforcement by RTA transit police infringed on riders’ Fourth Amendment rights and ordered the agency to stop using armed law enforcement officers to inspect fares without individualized and articulable reasonable suspicion. When the case was appealed by the City of Cleveland, Mr. Hardiman represented the rider in front of the district court, which eventually dismissed the appeal.
Groves’ ruling also offered a solution that would honor the rights of riders while preserving the time saving benefits of prepaid fares and all-door boarding: unarmed RTA transit ambassadors to act as a buffer between passengers and police. CPT began calling on GCRTA to implement transit ambassadors with the release of the Fair Fares Platform in 2018.
Instead, RTA chose to have HealthLine operators check fares, causing delays and less-reliable service over the past three years, as well as a massive drop in reported crimes of “misconduct” (fare evasion), from over 5,000 cases in 2017 to just 259 cases in 2018. Despite this drop, RTA continues to spend over $14 million dollars annually on transit police while fares have doubled and service has been cut over 25% in the last 15 years.
Joe Gaston shared his experience of being targeted by transit police for dozing off in an RTA station while waiting for a train. He was charged with criminal trespass, even though he had a fare card.
“I woke up with four transit police officers standing around me,” he said. “I became a target to them, I fit the profile of a low-income person.” His charges were eventually dropped, just before the start of trial. “I was happy but I was also disappointed. I felt what they were doing to me was unconstitutional. I wanted the court to issue a ruling to bar the police from continuing to do this kind of stuff. They take advantage of the powerless.”
Another rider spoke about when she first realized that friends from the suburbs were not being stopped and asked for their fare cards, while as an inner city rider, she was stopped by transit police almost every day on her way to school. “I knew then there was a disproportionate impact on inner city folks compared to those from the suburbs,” she said.
Brittney Madison, co-chair of CPT’s policy committee, shared a recent encounter with transit police just this week. She observed two transit officers issuing a citation to a man at an Ohio City bus stop when she began filming. “He told me he would arrest me for being too close to him,” Madison said. “Mind you, if I was waiting on a bus, that’s exactly where I would have been standing.”
According to Madison, the officers were policing poverty instead of ensuring public safety. “I wondered if this is an instance where we need two armed officers blocking this man in,” she said. “I believe civilian safety ambassadors would be a much better option.”
Last year, RTA Board member Justin Bibb agreed to explore RTA transit ambassadors while Cleveland City Councilman Kerry McCormack committed to passing legislation to decriminalize fare evasion. McCormack has drafted legislation that has yet to be introduced to City Council.
Members of the RTA Board were not present to hear from riders at tonight’s event. “It speaks volumes about how they feel about this issue and a possible resolution,” said Madison.
EDITOR's NOTE. This article represents a first for The Real Deal Press. It is an unsolicited submission from a community source that we deem reliable. The reporting is supported by video.
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Clevelanders for Public Transit is a riders’ organization that builds power for affordable, accessible and equitable public transit in Northeast Ohio. For more information, visit clefortransit.org
Black Spring CLE is a Black led abolitionist organization seeking to re-imagine the definition of public health and safety in Cleveland. For more information, visit blackspringcle.com
