Bus Safety Update
JULY 7 -- Teams of MTA police officers are now riding local buses – potentially providing a much-needed uniformed presence that will deter some of the assaults being inflicted on Bus Operators, TWU Local 100 President Tony Utano and Secretary-Treasurer Richard Davis announced today, Thursday, July 7, 2022.
Local 100, meanwhile, has formed an Employee Safety Committee of Surface Transportation with the Amalgamated Transit Union leadership and NYC Transit to develop additional recommendations to reduce assaults and the risk of injury from other hazards – and to monitor and give input on police deployment, Utano and Davis announced.
Rank-and-file Bus Operators also will have a seat at the table, Utano and Davis said. The task force will include a committee that has a Bus Operator from each depot. Victims of assaults themselves also will be on the committee.
“I believe we are making real progress,” Utano said. “We’ve made a big push to get police on buses, but we need more, and we need involvement from the NYPD.” Davis, who also serves as Local 100 Safety Director, said the MTA police teams and task force builds upon his initiative to restructure and reinvigorate the Safety Department, which will also be involved in this task force.
The MTA has told the union that the MTA police officers are being deployed to “hot spot” segments of bus routes where assaults have been particularly problematic. The targeted areas are identified by MTA Security, which has also directed some of its Eagle Teams to pay attention to local buses.