Bill Scott, a veteran police officer, was named head of Metro’s new in-house police service.
Scott quit as chief of police in San Francisco on Wednesday morning, after eight years on the job. He had been a police officer for 27 years in Los Angeles and was a candidate for LAPD chief in 2018.
After years of hiring outside police to guard the Los Angeles County transit system, the Metro board of directors unanimously approved a new police and emergency management department last year. This came after a rise in crime and attacks on bus drivers.
At a news meeting on Wednesday, Metro CEO Stephanie Wiggins said, “Everyone deserves a safe Metro, and we had to do something different to make sure safety on our system.” “For many years, we’ve been using a multi-agency model, which is a system where different law enforcement agencies work together across jurisdictions.” We had to ask ourselves, “Is this still the right way to run Metro today?” because this plan had worked well for us for many years.
Metro recently said that crimes against people went up by about 17% from January to February. However, compared to last February, the number of crimes in February was down 9%.
I think Scott is a “unicorn” because he knows what Metro needs and how to move forward with its safety plan. Scott is in charge of building the department, training staff, and hiring new ones. He is also in charge of coordinating security for the 2026 World Cup, the 2027 Super Bowl, and the 2028 Olympics.
Scott will start his new job on June 23. Metro had said before that the $193 million-a-year plan would take some time to put into action because it would mean ending relationships with outside police.
“This job lets me bring everything that I learnt from community policing to crisis response, from local engagement to national reforms to a brand new police department,” Scott said. “I believe this is the right role at the right time for the right reason.”
While he was at the LAPD, Scott was told to deal with the rising murder rate in South L.A. In 2016, he told The Times that the best way to lower violence was to send police to areas with a lot of crime and get gang intervention workers to work together to stop killings in retaliation. He quit the department at the end of that year to go work in San Francisco.
The new chief said that he plans to hire just under 700 officers for the new department. He also said that the focus will not just be on enforcement, but also on safety measures to keep Metro workers and riders safe. Neither did he give any specifics about the time or plans.
The office is working on a number of projects to improve and expand rail. Supervisor Janice Hahn of Los Angeles County, who is also the chair of the Metro board, said that safety is still a top concern.
“No matter how much we improve our service—faster routes, shorter wait times—it won’t matter if Metro users don’t feel safe.”