Title
A MOTION relating to public transportation, requesting the executive to engage on a task force on transit safety and security to address public safety on transit and in the communities in which the Metro transit department operates.
Body
WHEREAS, Metro transit department operator Shawn Yim was assaulted and fatally stabbed on December 18, 2024, while on duty, and
WHEREAS, according to Metro transit department performance reports on safety and security, the Metro transit department experienced thirty-three reported assaults on transit operators during 2023, with many more unreported, and
WHEREAS, a nighttime study conducted by the University of Washington in 2023 on a total of eleven local buses and nineteen light rail train cars on routes across four different transit agencies detected methamphetamine in ninety-eight percent of surface samples and one hundred percent of air samples, and detected fentanyl in forty-six percent of surfaces and twenty-five percent of air samples, and
WHEREAS, a survey of transit operators published by the University of Washington in 2024 indicated that eight-three percent of respondents reported observing passengers smoking drugs aboard their vehicles, twenty-seven percent of respondents reported that they had been physically attacked or assaulted by a passenger during the past year, and fifty percent of respondents indicated a likelihood to leave their job within the next year, and
WHEREAS, increasing public safety on buses and at bus stops and transit centers is a responsibility that is the primary responsibility of the Metro transit department but requires strong partnership and support from the local jurisdictions in which it operates, and
WHEREAS, increasing levels of homelessness, substance use disorder, and behavioral health challenges throughout King County have affected public safety and perceptions of safety on transit and at bus stops and transit centers, and
WHEREAS, in a hearing of the King County council'...
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