Besides working on arrival times and adding routes, the Detroit bus system is focusing on improving security, a long-time concern of riders and drivers.
The city announced Tuesday that the Detroit Transit Police Department has increased the number of transit officers who patrol buses and the Detroit People Mover, identified "Problem Transit Points" to target high crime areas on and near bus routes and dramatically increased the number of "bus boardings" of officers patrolling the system.
The Detroit Transit Police had a nearly a 70% increase in the number of "bus boardings" from January through May 2016 compared to the same period in 2015, the city said.
Lt. Ricky Brown of the Detroit Transit Police Department tells Deadline Detroit that the typical bus boarding involves a transit officer getting on a bus and riding it for 5 or 10 minutes while a patrol car trails behind. The officer then gets on another bus and repeats the process.
Sometimes, Brown said, the officer will stay stay on a bus longer if there's a need.
"We've received very positive feed back from the bus drivers union as well as riding customers," Brown said.
Since January 2016, the department has added 3 lieutenants, 5 sergeants, and 16 transit officers, enabling the department to staff three shifts. The third shift was created when the bus system started offering 24-hour service back in January for some routes.
To date, the department has 43 transit officers and a total staff of 56, which includes supervisors and administrators. The city said it hopes in coming months to bring the number of transit officers to 49 and the total staff to 62.
Fred Westbrook, President of DDOT bus driver union Local 26, sees the benefits of the beefed up patrols.
"The Detroit Transit Police have really impacted the bus routes," he said in a statement. "Drivers and riders alike feel safer from the presence of the additional officers."
