Board Recommends Transit Rangers for Bus Security

A Milwaukee County Transit System (MCTS) bus from Gillig. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

A proposal to create a new $3.4 million force of transit rangers who would provide security within the Milwaukee County Transit System (MCTS) was endorsed by the Milwaukee County Board Thursday despite concern from the transit system itself.

The proposal was one of four iterations for new security that came out of a task force created by the board to study the issue of safety and security in the transit system. The two co-chairs of the task force, supervisors Peter Burgelis and Ryan Clancy, sponsored legislation pushing forward one of them that calls for 51 new security personnel employed by the county and called Transit Rangers.

The Transit Rangers would be modeled after Park Rangers who work in county parks. Attached to the new security would also be a liaison to the county’s Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and another to the county’s housing division.

Supervisors estimated the cost of the Transit Ranger program using numbers put together by former MCTS Director of Safety, Security and Training, Brian Kading, for a similar security force that would be employed within MCTS. The current contract with the private company Allied Universal is approximately $2.2 million. That contract expires this fall.

The Transit Rangers would not have law enforcement authority, or the ability to detain or remove passengers from the bus.

MCTS has pushed back against the Transit Ranger proposal since July when the task force held its last meeting. “I understand how the Task Force may think Park Rangers are a better option than our current security,” MCTS Managing Director Denise Wandke said in a statement released earlier this month. “Unfortunately, I feel this recommendation is very similar to what we already have in place and will not bring a long-term solution.”

The push for improved transit security has been led by the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 998 (ATU). The union has sought new security for years and pushed the transit task force. Union officials have also repeatedly called for greater involvement from law enforcement in transit security.

“We have heard tearful testimony, we have heard every kind of story from the operators that work on the buses… It’s very important that we push through for the implementation of these new security policies and practices,” said Sup. Juan Miguel Martinez, who authored the budget amendment that created the security planning task force. “We have heard from the experts, which is the people that work those jobs.”

When the full board took the proposal up Thursday, several supervisors noted that they had received communications from the Milwaukee County Department of Transportation (MCDOT) and MCTS that said the likely cost for the Transit Ranger program would be roughly double what was estimated earlier this summer.

Sup. Priscilla E. Coggs-Jones, who chairs the Committee on Transportation and Transit, described what she called a “feasibility study” that was sent to her by Donna Brown-Martin, director of MCDOT. The study laid out a “realistic approach” to funding, hiring and standing up the force. Additionally, Coggs-Jones said if the rangers are made county employees, “we will not necessarily be able to meet FTA guidelines if I’m not mistaken.” Still, Coggs-Jones urged the board to pass the resolution.

Sup. Shawn Rolland urged the board to consider sending the proposal back to the committee so the board could continue working on it. He too referenced an email from Brown-Martin and a “long litany of considerations that were not aired as part of that task force, a lot of extra costs that were not considered.” Rolland said making a recommendation without considering this information would be “premature.”

Rolland noted that task force proposals have withered on the vine of the county board before, holding up the Domes Task Force, which worked for three years and ultimately produced a recommendation that was not feasible. “And we spent a lot of time on that,” Rolland said. “We’re still spending time on that.” 

Burgelis and Clancy said that MCTS and MCDOT could have raised these considerations and provided these cost estimates earlier. They and other supervisors also characterized the board’s recommendation as the beginning of a longer process. “It’s intended to be the first step, not the finish line,” Clancy said.

“The cost estimate that we received by email earlier in the week is important,” Burgelis said. “And I think would be a great start for that proposal from the administration.”

The board voted unanimously, with Rolland abstaining, to recommend the Transit Ranger program.