Stanislaus deputies now on board with patrolling downtown transit center | Opinion

The basic responsibility of local government is providing its residents with basic public services, like clean streets, safe drinking water and safety.

That is what the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors did when it approved an agreement on July 22 to use sheriff deputies to strengthen policing at regional transit authority locations, including the downtown Modesto Transit Center..

The Stanislaus Regional Transit Authority — citing an increase nationally in security-related incidents at transit centers — will pay the Sheriff’s Office $478,967 for two full-time deputies, overtime and additional costs for the first year.

StanRTA, as the transit authority is known, will use the sheriff deputies to augment security personnel under a five-year contract with American Guard Services. The private contractor will provide a guard 24/7 at the downtown center and security at the bus maintenance facility.

“This is concerning as the number of security-related incidents in transit systems nationwide is rising,” Sheriff Jeff Dirkse said in a report to the supervisors. “Having the Sheriff’s Office dedicate sworn officers to support transit will be beneficial to all citizens of Stanislaus County.”

Public safety is paramount, but not to the sheriff’s union which balked at having two of its officers assigned to new duties.

“We are adamantly opposed to it,” Randon Kirkbride, president of the Stanislaus Sworn Deputies Association, said in a story by Modesto Bee reporter Ken Carlson. “We don’t want to be entering contracts with other entities to be security guards.”

Kirkbride said Dirkse’s administration broke contract rules that require a “meet-and-confer” to discuss a change in job duties.

“It blows my mind that they are going to have us work as bus-stop cops,” Kirkbride said.

We believe taxpayers fund public safety, whether officers are needed at a breaking crime scene, a transit center or security at the Stanislaus County Fair. That is why it’s good news that sheriff deputies have begun their patrol: one deputy will work late morning to evening Monday through Thursday, and another will work Wednesday through Saturday.

StanRTA CEO Adam Barth welcomes the sheriff deputies’ preference because they can handle much more than private security.

“We heard from riders and drivers that private security were not prepared to handle the incidents that were happening,” Barth told The Bee. “The Sheriff’s Department was on board (with a safety agreement), so that is why we contracted with them.”

Unarmed guards, said Barth, are unable to make arrests and have limitations on handling criminal incidents. “The number of incidents that I am seeing has dramatically increased over the last couple of years,” he said.

Union’s objection was wrong

Kirkbride, the president of the sheriff deputies union, told The Modesto Bee he would have preferred the county fill vacancies instead of having two officers patrol the transit center located a few blocks from the Modesto Police Department.

That thinking is short-sighted. Sheriff deputies cover a jurisdiction that takes in StanRTA’s 27 bus routes throughout the county. The transit system needs to make safety a priority for an operation that generates 3 million passenger trips annually.

A deputy could do much more than a security guard in preventing thefts, maintaining public order and enforcing the law.

Deputies will also participate in public safety education, bus safety programs, crime prevention, traffic safety and advocate for public transit.

The need for law officers is serious for bus driver Roy Spears, according to Carlson’s reporting from Spears’ Facebook account.

“We definitely needed some serious help. Just their presence has made a huge difference,” wrote Spears, who said he has been punched, kicked and spat upon while driving the bus. “I feel safer. I feel like someone now has our back.”

Thanks to county supervisors and StanRTA, drivers like Spears and his passengers are better protected.