TAKING A STAND

Community groups make yet another plea to Port Authority over police enforcement of fares

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

After leading the latest protest against Port Authority’s proposal to use armed police officers to enforce fare payment as a criminal matter, Laura Wiens of Pittsburghers for Public Transit shook her head.

For more than seven months, a coalition of groups has told the authority about the potential deadly outcomes of confrontations between armed officers and riders who don’t understand what is going on: public school students, immigrants who don’t speak English or those with mental disabilities. The coalition has pointed out numerous other cities that use civilians for fare enforcement, treat it as a civil matter similar to a parking ticket and have no greater problem with fare evasion.

“It’s not clear to us what the issue is,” Ms. Wiens said Thursday after 50 people delivered more than 300 postcards against the proposed policy to state Rep. Dom Costa’s office in Morningside. Mr. Costa, a Port Authority board member and former Pittsburgh police chief, wasn’t there and couldn’t be reached for comment, but his office accepted the cards.

The group, part of a coalition that includes the Thomas Merton Center, Casa San Jose and the Alliance for Police Accountability, rallied at Natoli Field before walking a few blocks to Mr. Costa’s office.

Brandi Fisher of the Alliance for Police Accountability said making fare evasion a criminal matter “just doesn’t make sense.”

“Why do we want to put people in the criminal justice system because of that?” she