Rep. Friedman calls for $250 million in safety grants for nation’s public transit agencies
Rep. Friedman calls for $250 million in safety grants for nation’s public transit agencies
প্রকাশিত November 26, 2025, 12:55 AM
On the eve of the busiest travel days of the year, Rep. Laura Friedman, D-Glendale, on Tuesday unveiled a bill that would pump about $250 million during the next five years into more police officers and safety measures such as taller fare gates and weapons detectors for the nation’s public transit agencies.
The Safe and Affordable Transit Act is an effort to reduce traffic and clean the air in the nation’s largest cities by creating safer bus, light-rail and subway systems, thereby encouraging more residents to leave their cars at home and ride public transit, Friedman said.
“This bill is about giving people confidence so that every family can feel safe taking public transit,” said Friedman, speaking at a press event at the Amtrak and Metrolink train station located across the street from Hollywood Burbank Airport.
The legislation will also research the best crime-prevention tactics being used by transit agencies in major U.S. cities. For example, at the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) in the nation’s capital, serious crime fell by 43% between June 2024 and June 2025 after the agency added more cops who actually ride the trains. The decrease was partially the response from deterrence by increasing law enforcement patrol visibility.
In Los Angeles County, the legislation got a show of support from LA Metro, the county’s independent transit agency that runs about 2,100 buses in 1,400 square miles; six rail lines serving 112 stations; 2 busways; 225 Metro Bike Share stations; 83 Metro Micro rideshare vans, plus carpool and express lanes on freeways.
LA Metro has wrestled aggressively with crime spikes from 2022-2024, adding a surge of officers from the three contracting police agencies: Los Angeles PD, Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department and Long Beach PD. Plus, the agency beefed up its force of Transit Security Officers, made Metro Ambassadors — who don’t carry weapons — permanent employees equipped with Narcan to reverse opioid overdoses, and employed homeless support teams at train stations and certain bus depots.
The effort has resulted in a 28% decrease in violent crimes on Metro over the last two years, said Bill Scott, the agency’s new chief of police and emergency management, who left his job as chief of police in San Francisco in June to work at LA Metro.
Also, many riders have complained of unhoused passengers sleeping on trains across many seats. Some who are mentally ill, yell out and cause disturbances. Also substance abusers have shot up drugs in the shadows of some train stations and on some trains and buses. These activities have scared away potential riders, surveys found.
LA Metro CEO Stephanie Wiggins, also at the press event in support of the legislation, said the agency has seen a 38% drop in homelessness, according to the most recent homeless point-in-time count.
“Safety is the most important thing we are working on at Metro,” she said. “If people don’t feel safe riding the bus or train, they won’t. It is that simple.” Violent crime on the system is at the lowest levels since May 2019, the agency reported in July.
In June 2023, the Metro board voted to create its own police and safety department, which will take the place of the officers and deputies from the contracting agencies, patrolling buses, depots, trains and transit hubs. Scott was hired to build the new transit police force.
He said LA Metro hopes to have hired 400 sworn officers by 2028, in time for the Los Angeles Summer Olympic Games. Eventually, Scott said the transit agency will need 600 sworn officers to fill out the new department.
Both Scott and Wiggins are hoping Friedman’s bill becomes law, allowing grant dollars to be used for the hiring of new police safety officers and adding crime prevention equipment.
“So this legislation will be immensely helpful as we continue to build our department,” Wiggins said.
Support also comes from Metrolink, the heavy-rail passenger service that runs seven train lines across six Southern California counties, and from bus and train operator unions.
“Every day, at least 42 transit workers are assaulted on U.S. transit systems. In 2024, there were more than 11,000 incidents of bus operators or other transit workers being attacked. By investing in transit security measures, including increased law enforcement, we are better protecting our riders, communities, and transit workers,” said Amalgamated Transit Union International President John Costa in a prepared statement.
Friedman is aware that getting any Democrat-authored bill through the Republican-majority House of Representatives will be an uphill battle.
That’s why Friedman brought on co-author Nicole Malliotakis, R-New York. Malliotakis serves in the right-leaning 11th Congressional District, which covers suburban Staten Island and a portion of southern Brooklyn.
“I join Rep. Laura Friedman in introducing the Safe and Affordable Transit Act of 2025,” Malliotakis said in a prepared statement. “In a city of nearly 9 million people, having safe and reliable public transportation keeps our city moving, and our bipartisan bill would establish a new federal grant program dedicated to transit safety and infrastructure upgrades that promote passenger and operator safety.”
Friedman hopes to gain more Republican support for what is essentially a law-and-order bill, something she said House members from both sides of the aisle can support. “I am hoping there is interest across the aisle,” she said.
Assemblyman Nick Schultz, a Democrat who represents the 44th Assembly District that includes the cities of Burbank and Glendale, and the communities of La Crescenta, Sunland, Tujunga, North Hollywood, Sherman Oaks, Studio City, Toluca Lake and Valley Village, was at Friedman’s side supporting the legislation.
The former Burbank city councilmember said Friedman is “very savvy” to gain Republican support. “She’s doing all the right things to get it passed.” As for his part, he’s encouraging his colleagues in the Assembly and Senate to talk up the bill with their overlapping Congressional representatives.
Friedman said the bill asks for $50 million in grants each year from 2026 to 2030. But she hopes the amounts will increase.
“I see this as the initial shot in the arm,” she said.
If passed, the bill sets up a brand new grant program specifically to pay for safety measures for transit agencies. Overall, public transit gets much less support from the federal government as compared to highway and roadway dollars, Friedman said.
