San Diego Trolley, Very Dirty and Unsafe (Encinitas, London: contractor, subdivision)

[beachrescue]

YouTube - ‪Man Attacked at San Diego‬‏
Video of person being attacked at trolley station

[shmoov_groovzsd]

beachrescue,

Thanks for the info, its always a good thing to be informed especially when it comes to national security issues and public transit. The times we are living in certainly make this a valid argument. This should be a concern for us all no doubt.

I have lived in cities all over the world and its no different actually. I was in London during a bus bombing not far from where I was. I was in NYC when subways had been shut down from potential bomb threats. Its public transit. It happens regardless of intel as one will always slip through the cracks.

Now I am not going to to get into a statistical battle here about whether you are more likely to die on a free way, airline or any other way to get from point A to B vs the trolley.
But living in constant fear or singular moments of violence from sheer stupidity (like video of the kid that took out his iphone on the trolley) and then getting your butt kicked from lack of street sense are less than convincing. There are probably more incidents of people walking in a mall parking lot getting held up for their iPhones for all I care.
So like that video you posted it is a small example of an incident caught by one of those security cameras and its not about catching the criminals right there and then, its about documenting them and catching them later. There may come a time where that may be ineffective based on the volume of crime at some point.
Your belief that uniformed security guards dont "stop" criminal activity is correct. However I dont necessarily think its about stopping as it is about deterring and making potential criminal redirect his/her route or move on from a potential target.

Personally, as a rider that chooses mass transit when I can (as do thousands of others) if I was that fearful and didnt think it was worth my salt to go on a ride, I definitely wouldnt. Sure there are crazies on there and tweakers in some cases but that doesnt bother me personally. It is what it is.
However that is based on my experience and level of personal level of exposure to mass transit.

Being informed and making decisions is what its about. The great thing is, we have choices, it seems clear that you have made yours and this is one choice that I can say that I am more than comfortable as do others on this forum that choose to ride the trolley.

Maybe one day, you will be right and you can sit back in your chair and say "I told you so", but I am hoping you are wrong. The last thing I think anyone wants is to see or be in is danger like that.
Until then, thousands will still take the trolley to commute, people will get beat up for whipping out their iPhones in public transit and life will go on.

[beachrescue]

Your right in is what it is. To the folks that have to ride it, they need it. It therefore should be a top priority to prevent the people that need it from being victimized. That is the purpose of the post. If you guys ride the trolley look out for suspicious activity. If some is being harmed call transit security at 619.595. 4960The best thing would be to fence in the stations so you cant get in without a ticket I think that is how it is in New York? Ignoring the safety issues is what the bad guys want. Then they can prey on the innocent and uniformed. It is not illegal to film anything on the trolley. It is not illegal to video security or Law Enforcement and they know that. Just don't interfere with the contact they have. Let them do their job. The trolley security has a very hard job an I have been told they have no training beyond security guard. The officers are told by management to say different, so they get cheap labor, but it appears they have training. They only pay the armed officers 10.00 and hour. Half the time they are forced to keep updating their position on the blackberry phones they get issued which takes the attention of the officer of the real task at hand and that is security. It appears that some security company named Heritage Security owns the contract and refuses to pay more or train the officers. I know they had a fight yesterday with some riders and the trolley officer broke a riders arm. That info comes from the paramedics that transported the guy to the hospital. I can't see breaking a persons arm over a trolley fare, but it seems that is what the company tells them to do. Instead they should be checking baggage, looking for unattended baggage, there needs to be an officer on every train car.

[beachrescue]

It appears in this video that the trolley guard got mad after the guy was handcuffed and jumped on him and beat him up? This is not correct procedure, this show the lack of training. Police don't so this anymore. Yes maybe back in the 80s but not now.
http://youtu.be/z-1PTUma4qk

[beachrescue]

At 5pm today there was a robbery reported at the Palomar Street Trolley Station

[moved]

I used to work for Heritage, and yes, they're cheap. They don't "own" the MTS contract. They've just had it for so long that no other company bothers to bid on it. It's the same way with the Cruise Ship Terminal. Two other security companies were there when I worked there, but Heritage had been there for so long that they were awarded it again.

The unarmed trolley officers make $9.50 per hour, and I think the armed officers are now up to $11.00 per hour. A lot of the armed officers are either retired military, or waiting to go into law enforcement.

They do get training, but it's not much. Heritage does the initial interviewing and screening, then sends the application to MTS to see if they want to interview the person(s) interested in the job. MTS uses Heritage as a employment agency and payroll service. The trolley officers work for MTS, but are paid by Heritage.

[beachrescue]

I had a long talk with one of them, he states they voted on a union last November. Heritage has refused to negotiate in good faith, walked out on talks, and fired most of the guards that voted for the union, have paid several law suits, and is on the run. Guard stated that most of the guards are Hispanic, and if your not a Hispanic they give you the **** details. He said they get no Law Enforcement Level Training, yet are constantly in contact with criminals and mentally ill persons. They make allot of arrest that go bad because the end up fighting with the person. He said it is a very corrupt situation. He told me they should be using the sheriffs department for security but it would cost 10 of millions more. 10.00 dollars an hour is not going to attract professionals. As far as retired military, he stated they wont hire you if your over about 35, to much walking and standing. He said most of the contract guidelines are violated everyday. He said there was a major concern about terrorism and Homeland Security needs to step in. He said it is only a matter of time as there is only 30 security persons a shift and they are overwhelmed and ignoring half of the crime, vandalism is costing MTS allot of money, but heritage wont step up as they got the money from MTS, so they don't care, just defraud the taxpayer and endanger the guards by not paying for anything.
I would say Citizens Advisory Board needs to step in and investigate.
I WOULD SAY FAILURE TO PROVIDE ADEQUATE SECURITY,

1) A legal duty was owed to take certain cares to people coming upon the property by the owner and /or leaseholder.

2) Either a crime of an assaultive nature or a danger on the land or premises that could have the potential of causing harm was foreseeable in the eyes of a reasonable man.


3) Failure to provide a reasonable level of security needed to counter any crime of an assaultive nature or danger was not provided by the land owner and/or lessee.


4) The failure on the part of the land owner and/or lessee was a proximate cause for the damage suffered in the claim.

5) Actual damages were suffered as a result of this breach of duty.

[moved]

All of this is true. Heritage is a really crappy company to work for.

I made my money with Heritage working at the Cruise Ship Terminal for two years with them. Every day that we worked when cruise ships were in was a minimum of 12 hours, sometimes more. The Heritage supervisor that worked there got a better job (claims adjuster w/GEICO), and his replacement started getting rid of all the older people. He actually left me a threatening voice mail, and when I played it back for HR the company took no action against him at all. I received two payouts two years apart from a big Class Action lawsuit against Heritage from not giving us lunch or restroom breaks.

Even now, some of the armed trolley officers are still there from when I worked for Heritage in 2002.

[beachrescue]

My question is why is MTS doing business with a company that has issue of this nature. Is there collusion?
Kickbacks? what is going on. The riders on trolley deserve better. Any Person who has been a security guard for 8 to 10 years has got issues.
Why would someone waste their time at 10.00 dollars an hour for all those years.

[moved]

Apparently MTS doesn't care about the reputation of the company. I doubt if they're getting any kickbacks. Some of the trolley officers are able to get actual jobs within MTS, one of them being a Code Compliance Officer.

A lot of people work security for various reasons. Just a few are: being unskilled, wanting a part-time job, they're in school, they're retired, they lost their job, and take anything while they're looking for another one.

I've been doing it part-time off and on since 1989. When I lost my decent paying school district job in 2009, I had to start working more security, but I only work events, and it's flexible. I keep my guard card current, and it really helps.

To an unskilled person, $10.00 is a good hourly wage. When you work security, all the company cares about is getting a body in a uniform on the job site to satisfy the client, so the security company gets paid.