EL CAJON ECONOMY, BETTER IMAGE IN FOCUS

City Council also prioritizes more homeless assistance

Enhancing El Cajon’s image, attracting more businesses and helping its homeless population are among the East County city’s goals for this coming year.

Partnerships with outside entities will help the city combat its challenges serving the homeless community, City Manager Graham Mitchell told the City Council in his presentation earlier this month. The city is planning to develop a Memorandum of Understanding with other East County jurisdictions, Mitchell said, that will address needs for emergency shelters, permanent supportive housing and coordinating services.

As part of its priorities, the City Council asked staff to increase enforcement on drug dealers who prey on the homeless population and to be more proactive in cleaning up encampments and trash left behind. The City Council will look at making changes to its Mu

place the focus on serving riders and the new uniforms reflect this new approach.”

MTS’s code compliance inspectors and the contract security officers patrol the agency’s three trolley lines, 95 bus routes and 53 transit stations. Code compliance inspectors have the power to arrest riders and write tickets, but are not armed. The contract security officers are armed and can carry guns if they receive proper licenses from the state. The agency and its security personnel have faced criticism in the

past. In 2014, a video emerged showing contract security officers beating a man on a trolley. Last year, the agency settled a lawsuit outside of court with four men who had sued in 2018 over allegations of assault and excessive force.

In 2018, MTS saw a decline in crime on its trolley lines after beefing up security, but a series of stories last year from Voice of San Diego showed MTS’s fare evasion ticketing

outpaced that of other agencies across the country. Voice of San Diego reported that those tickets overburdened low-income riders and that MTS enforcement disproportionately affected its Black riders.

An outside review made public last month recommended more than 60 changes to MTS’s security operations.

MTS officials said this week the agency has revised its use-of-force policies and implemented a fare citation diversion program while it begins to comply with the recommendations made in the outside review. The agency also hired Al Stiehler in January, bringing him from the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority, to take over as director of transit security and passenger safety.

“Over the past year, MTS Security has been working diligently with the Public Security Committee to explore ways to better serve our customers by emphasizing our role as ambassadors to our riders,” Stiehler said in a statement. “We have been adopting principles, guidelines and implementing policies to be of better service to our community, and the new uniforms align better with that approach.”