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November 18, 2021
Los Angeles, CA—Today, the Los Angeles Metro Board of Directors Operations, Safety, and Customer Experience Committee unanimously approved a motion by Supervisor Janice Hahn which requires law enforcement agencies that contract with Metro to enforce a COVID-19 vaccination mandate for their employees.
The motion was adopted as an amendment to an item that would extend Metro’s contracts with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, the Los Angeles Police Department, and the Long Beach Police Department and will be voted on by the full Metro Board on December 2, 2021.
“We need to reimagine public safety on Metro and invest in alternatives to armed officers,” said Supervisor Hahn. “In the meantime, we should not extend contracts with law enforcement agencies if they will not make sure their employees are vaccinated. Keeping our riders safe means considering their health too.”
If the full Metro Board of Directors approves the item on December 2nd, law enforcement agencies will need to enforce a vaccination mandate for their employees by July 2022 or lose their contract with Metro. This would include the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
LA Metro currently contracts with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, the Los Angeles Police Department, and the Long Beach Police Department, and is undertaking an ambitious effort to reimagine public safety on its buses, trains, and at its stations. Supervisor Hahn has been a proponent of this work including an effort to bring in trained mental health professionals from the LA County Department of Mental Health.
