Could MCTS Have New Security by 2024?

New Gillig Clean-Diesel Bus. Photo Courtesy of MCTS.

Members of a task force set up by the board to find a solution for safety and security within the Milwaukee County Transit System (MCTS) are racing to finish their work in hopes that a new security force can be created by next year.

As Urban Milwaukee has reported, the MCTS Security Task Force has been steadily moving toward a final recommendation for the bus system that would replace the current contractor, Allied Universal, with a county-run, unarmed security force.

At its latest meeting, the task force reviewed a number of policy proposals, most of which could be incorporated into a single, overarching recommendation for improving safety and security. But the task force still has to make a decision about what the county’s new security force should look like.

The majority of the task force is pushing, or rather pulling, the rest along to have a recommendation ready before the end of July so that it could be considered for inclusion in the 2024 county budget.

At the core of this question are two competing ideas about how this force should be built. One idea is to stand up a new security force of county employees modeled on Milwaukee County Parks‘ Parks Rangers, to be called Transit Rangers. The other idea is for a similar security force under the control of MCTS called Public Safety Officers.

There is little difference between the two proposals. Transit Rangers, as envisioned, would have the ability to write citations for violations of county ordinances. Though neither would have arrest powers nor the ability to detain someone. Also, the Transit Rangers are paid less and therefore cheaper than the Public Safety Officers proposed by MCTS.

By the end of the latest Task Force meeting, both proposals were also paired with a handful of security managers, a full-time liaison to the county’s Housing Division and another staffer that acts as a liaison between transit security and the county’s Department of Health and Human Services, which contains the Housing Division. And both the ranger and safety officer proposals include two versions, one with 41 security personnel and the other with 51 security personnel.

The Ranger program, based on estimates put together by Sup. Ryan Clancy, co-chair of the task force, would cost between approximately $2.9 and $3.5 million annually. The Public Safety Officer program, based on estimates by MCTS, would cost between $3.2 and over $4 million annually.

In 2022, the contract with Allied Universal, the current contractor, cost the county $2.7 million.

Sup. Juan Miguel Martinez, who authored the budget amendment creating the task force, supports the transit ranger program and said he has “faith in the board” that they will support whatever recommendation is supported by MCTS’ workers. Clancy, who also supports the ranger proposal, told Urban Milwaukee there is “broad consensus” on the task force “that the status quo is terrible, it is not working,” even if MCTS and members of the task force are not in lock step about how to proceed.

The other co-chair of the committee, Sup. Peter Burgelis, told Urban Milwaukee he favors either program so long as it’s the option that has 51 security personnel.

The task force also includes Mike Brown, ATU vice president, and Brian Kading, director of safety, security and training.

MCTS officials support the proposal for Public Safety Officers, which would make the transit security officers MCTS employees, as opposed to county employees. MCTS is a private, quasi-governmental agency and non-profit governed by the Milwaukee Transport Services, Inc. Board. If the security employees are county employees, their salaries and staffing levels will be set by a budget outside of their control.

There is not yet a detailed plan that will go to the board as a recommendation, but most members of the task force are trying to have a recommendation finalized in time for inclusion in the 2024 budget.

To remake the transit system’s security, a recommendation from the task force will need to gain 12 votes on the county board and have buy-in from both Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley and top officials at MCTS.

ATU Vice President Brown has also been pushing to have a new task force submit a recommendation in time for the budget. The union has already endorsed the transit ranger program. Brown told Urban Milwaukee the union can help push the issue of security at the board, as it was the union’s advocacy that led to the creation of the task force. “We just need them to push it,” he said.

“I’m not going to stop until I get it.”