Councilmember Kaman and Councilmember Mary Nan Huffman and in Chambers we are joined by staff from Councilmember Cayman's office.

And Councilmember Ramirez's office.

I got everyone in Mayor Perdem staff is online.

And um Mayor Pro Tem Cassex Tatum's office is online as well.

So today we have one presentation.

It will be a public safety briefing from Metro Police Department.

Chief, if you want to come forward.

And if you want to make any introductions before you get started.

Committee Chair and Council members, um staff.

We're um we're delighted to be here.

This is uh a terrific opportunity for us to showcase some of the things we're doing, and we look forward to um the to the star of the show, Chief Ten to make a few comments.

But uh first I just wanted to uh highlight a few things before he gets in into his presentation, if you don't mind.

Um we have um uh about a year.

We'll raise it up a little bit.

Is that good?

Yes, this is much better.

Thank you.

So about a year and a half ago, Metro was faced with the dilemma about um public confidence in our system, and we had to make a decision as to a path forward.

Do we do we continue down um a path of um of assuming that things will get better, or do we stretch specifically address it?

And I'm I'm um here to tell you we went back to basics.

We focused on uh a safer, cleaner, more reliable, and more accessible system.

We call that Metro now.

In in doing so, we have seen um a steady rebirth, if you will, of our um regular ridership.

We are approaching numbers that are uh above COVID uh most of the system.

It's kind of weird how it's developing.

Some uh some routes are different than others as far as what existed before and what it is today.

But we're very uh fortunate in having um uh the opportunity to regrow and um and I have to say we're one of the leaders in the nation.

We are about seven percent above the national average as far as rebuilding ridership.

There are um things you'll see in the news that are happening in different transit systems across the country where there are uh many of them facing financial crisis, uh financial cliffs, they call them.

We're not in that situation.

We are uh we have sound financial footing.

We are um uh you know focused on uh basically rebuilding.

We're buying new buses, we're buying new shelters, we're buying new facilities to help to help uh uh address our needs for um growing and and changing the way our police forces is uh out and about.

So you'll see um Metro looking to a little bit of a different posture in the future with uh a decentralized um uh focus on where we operate out of.

Uh those are a few of the of the high points.

Um I really want to hand it over to the star of the show here, Chief Tan.

But um we're backing them up financially.

We're putting uh more and more resources into our police efforts.

We're hiring.

We have we are at uh we have exceeded our objective this year for hiring, and we're adding additional piece um uh positions for next year.

And um, you know, we we have got to make sure that the system is um safe, appears safe, and appears clean, and and is reliable, and that's where we're at right now.

So with that, I'll turn it over to the chief to make his presentation.

And Chief, before you start, Mr.

Jason, thank you so much um for your comments.

Councilmember Alcran, did you want to ask a question now or wait till the just real quick?

Um, thank you.

Thank you for that.

I've noticed the stops.

The stops are so nice.

I mean, the new ones are just look so good.

The ADA accessibility has been a huge thing.

You got made great strides on that.

Uh the the things that people care most about and studies and other things is is increased frequency.

And I know you've increased frequency on several lines.

And I think that has a ton to do with the increase in ridership because it's been a pretty significant increase in ridership over the last year, right?

I mean, do you have numbers on that?

Very significant.

We're um like how many additional riders are so uh it's about five percent, and um, and so we're up to now about 75 million riders a year.

So uh it's about five percent, and um, and so we're up to now about 75 million riders a year.

Okay.

Okay, so that's like a five percent increase over last year.

And and I do think that, and I uh uh and I definitely appreciate it, excited to hear from Chief Ten about the the safety and about the cleanliness.

But I mean, you guys really you should tap that that increased um frequency because I mean people just want the bus to come faster.

And so that that's a story you should tell, and I hope that you keep making increased frequency a priority.

Uh we certainly will.

I appreciate it.

And um uh the other thing I failed to mention is um you'll see us focusing more on uh addressing what I would call mobility for all.

So while we were preparing to address specific street conditions where our buses uh drove, we're now in partnership with the city and with others, um repaving and improving conditions um on the entire street.

So uh we'll to you'll be seeing more and more of that.

And and how are you um definitely?

I mean, I live right by what your work that you're doing on Westheimer.

Sorry, I'll I'll get off this for a second, but while I've got the Metro chair here, it's fun to ask.

Um, how are you financing the road repair work that you're doing with the city?

Uh that's purely out of uh metro uh revenue sales.

That's just operating funds like debt financed, like is it is it commercial paper?

Is it how are you?

At this point, we've been able to use um uh all metro resources.

In some cases, we've been able to tap some federal grants.

So we assemble everything we can.

We have not issued any uh debt for probably eight years uh at Metro.

So none of the Metro next bond referendum, none of that debt has been issued.

Okay.

I I anticipate we will be looking to that here as we move forward in this coming year, but at this point, uh no, we have not.

Okay, thank you very much.

Thank you.

And Chief, before you get started, we were also joined by Councilmember Casillo and staff from Vice Chair Jackson's office and online um Councilman Pollard's office.

So, Chief, if you'd like to begin, thank you.

Thank you, ma'am.

Uh morning.

Uh my name is Ben 10, Metro Chief of Police.

The last time I was up here, I was in a different uniform.

But I have to admit this probably look a little better, right?

Just joking for all my HPD, you know, friends that's watching.

But good morning, everyone.

But uh today I'll have a quick update and a public safety briefing.

Next slide, please.

So this is our mission.

The reality is safety and security for our riders and to the public.

It's not one of the most important things, it is the most important thing, and it is our highest priority.

Our intent is always to keep our system safe, clean, reliable, and accessible by building the community trust, increase our visibility, our professionalism through dignity, care, and respect.

Next slide.

So this is the agenda.

This is what we'll briefly uh highlight over, and then I'll leave the some room in the back for some questions and comments.

Next slide.

I did not realize how big of a responsibility I have up until I joined Metro.

To put in perspective, uh 1300 square miles, if you try to frame the environment, it's almost the size of the state of Rhode Island.

So Rhode Island is roughly about like 1500 square mile, and it counts from waterways in it too, right?

And it covers four counties, uh, Harris being the biggest in the center of gravity, along with uh Fort Band Montgomery and also Waller.

And it has 14th City, Houston, that's a proper.

If you look to the right section, the services and facility, that is enormous.

All the way down to ridership to what my boss just uh kind of comment, uh this is like a little typo right there.

So we're roughly at around like 75 million to kind of put in perspective that's on average.

So this is not being a leap year, so it's only 365 days.

We roughly average over 200,000 riders and user in our system every single day.

The number the numbers are enormous.

Next slide.

So this is the pretty much the map of the greater Houston area that we cover.

And this is what called heat map is useful in a historical heat map that we use.

So every time it's like a little dot right next to it that we have to deliver service to those our key location, you can only imagine how enormous our areas is.

Next slide.

Well, I wouldn't want to focus on the mass of our riders is focused on the three main rail system that we have the red line, which run all the way from Phantom South and North to North Line.

And I know Council Member has a lot of experience with that areas out there, and also our green line runs all the way out to the east end, and more importantly, our purple line that cover all the university goes towards the southeast.

Next slide.

So next one we'll talk about is the growth and decentralization.

We were fortunate enough to reach uh our full staffing, a huge milestone early this year.

But full staffing, in terms of a lot of larger police department part in a thousand, but for me, it's in a hundred.

To put in perspective, it's uh south of 200 frontline officers.

So to make this work, for make our resources, the limited resources available to us, we have to make come up with some new ideas.

Perhaps maybe not new new, but get back to the basic to we invent some ideas to make it work.

So we try to, in the process of actually developing some additional satellite substation to expand our visibility, our footprint.

The intent and the goal is to have those stations strategically place a location where it's most needed, so our officers can cast a use it as a base so they can quickly respond to call without further delay.

You can only imagine if you have a heavy command and control headquarter in downtown, ever just come towards downtown, and as big as Houston was, the map I just uh is, the map I just showed y'all, the different places I would go to, taking traffic consideration, it's gonna have a lot of unnecessary delay time.

So the goal is to increase our footprint with substation.

So, in order for us to uh decentralize, we need to pay attention to where our biggest concerns areas will be.

And I will briefly talk about that uh later on.

Next slide.

We have to leverage our partnerships.

So, as I mentioned, we only have a couple hundred frontline officers, field officers in the field working.

You can only imagine divide that into three shifts, and with some support and some investigative function, the number is uh extremely limited.

So, with that said, we have to leverage our partners for Houston PD, Harris County, the precinct offices, and also along with uh most of our partners with the state and federal partners as well to increase our rapid response time.

So our footprint covered throughout the city and the county.

So when someone called 911, the first priority will be is the closest agency receive the 911 call will go and address the life and safety problems, and then Metro will go back to Auckland, then support them when take over when it happens in our footprint.

In addition to uh the law enforcement agency, I've been around the business long enough that I do realize, and uh we talk about this all the time, comes from members, that uh we just cannot arrest our way out of problems.

With that, say we leverage a lot of additional resources, like the veteran affairs to help some of those homeless populations, all the social service, the mineral health providers, and to extend our reach just beyond law enforcement.

And these collaborations have turned into uh uh some critical moments for us.

Basically, we try to kind of, you know, we rephrase and also revitalize the model to have like you know, to take away from the all enforcement concept to truly to create opportunities to create some rehabilitation and support for those that most needed, you know, that use our services.

Next slide.

So some of the highlights of some initiative that we have found lately has been extremely uh basically in our favor, it has been productive.

Some morning operations we're talking about, so basically we know the riders, a lot of our riders, especially in the rail system, uh, use it to go to work and stuff like that.

We do have a a issue, a concern with some homeless population sleeping on the train.

So we strategically stage them at certain points to kind of like, you know, you know, if they have no business riding the train to remove them from the train and to provide them the services that they most needed.

Now we talk about our care unit momentarily.

And also our platform presence.

Now, I do know, as I mentioned, we have a lot of platforms from the first few slides I show y'all.

We don't have the ability to cover every single platform, but we do monitor our heat map so we can strategically pay deploy our officers to do this platform where we have the biggest concern, biggest problem, so we have the highest payout.

As I mentioned at the care unit, we currently have six clinicians.

Uh, we basically go and encounter with the homeless population and provide them services and care.

And we are in a process of expanding them into the evening hours to double that size.

And the average currently right now is roughly about 200 contacts per week, and that is huge.

They basically have the ability to go through all those resources we talked about, to connect people to shelters, medical care, mental health care, and to a large degree, some of veterans to the veterans benefits us as well.

And um we basically want to shift the mindset and model to shift toward community-based type of policing and problem policing.

So we can be more intentional and more specific to the problems we're gonna deal with.

Community engagement is huge.

We have done a lot of outreach, but uh, you know, some ride-alongs and a partnership is key, but this is a part that uh we can absolutely do more.

At some point, we want to model our HPD partners do, have some of those uh positive intervention programs, those business type meetings and stuff like that, to bring into uh our network.

Next slide, please.

So this is our future plans.

Uh a few months back, we achieved a huge milestone.

We achieve our full staffing for the frontline officers.

We are continuing to grow, to grow to strengthen to strengthen our securities posture through our satellite station that we're gonna build in the near future, and also we want definitely want to prepare for not just the 2026 World Cup, but all key events coming up in the future.

I'm confident that Houston uh has already ceded to be the third largest city in the nation.

I'm pretty confident it's gonna continue to grow.

And we're gonna continue to focus on our training, technology, and our transparency.

Now, I do want to focus on the training, and because based on the evolving needs, as I mentioned earlier, we do hire a lot of uh officers, and then uh, you know, those need additional training.

And 2020 just have changed the world slightly, so we're just gonna revisit and how we need to train stuff and strengthen some of the stuff that we need to train, i.e., to provide care for those like when the mental health next is to it.

Now, I just mentioned a lot of stuff and a lot of uh uh uh you know, from increasing uh footprint to increasing our staffing to decentralization.

So, how do we do it?

With some metrics with some high level of specificity, I can define what are some of our success.

But what I have seen is the fact that I have a lot of positive contact as I ride the system, and folks have been coming out and telling me, Chief, thank you for making those improvements.

And then they always like to highlight a couple of uh locations like Wheeler, North Line with a presence, a limited presence out there.

But we have on a monthly basis, we've been taking guns off the street from criminals on a pretty regular basis.

I can only imagine how many crimes we prevented.

And also, we've been working in collaboration with the homeless coalition to be able to get them resources with the most needed.

These are actual account, my care unit, which is my clinician is telling me, Chief, we have come in contact with certain individuals, not the first, not the second, not the 10th, not the 20th, but the 50th time now they finally take our care.

And those actually, thanks to the homeless coalition, increasing our capacity, we were able to at least impact hundreds of lives.

And this is why this is important, because the metro is a part of a small system within the law enforcement system, and a law enforcement system is within a larger criminal justice system.

We can only do what we can do by meaning the fact that taking out the street, but we can only do as best as we can up to the point how the system can support that.

Despite those arrests, well, maybe those might get diverted, despite going to the mental health ward to get them care, you know, in the next 24, 40 hours they're back in the system again.

The key is to find long-term cares for them.

Now the one I really want to highlight is the fact that, ma'am, since you're here, uh, you know, uh, I'll highlight uh spring branch of the example.

There is no way with the best of technology, uh, the best of uh metrics and everything that I I can use, I can purchase off the shelf or whether it may be or by design.

It's nothing better than the human intelligence boots on the ground.

The person is closest to contact to the problem.

Like, for instance, ma'am, you tell us with a shelter, have a lot of problems.

So we with a high level of specificity, send care conditions, send officers to go and address those issues.

Uh we also get locations.

Hey, you are placing your officer at certain locations, may not be the best enforcement, you know, location for HOV.

You may might want to shift it somewhere else.

So those are stuff that those world live intel, those role-like data that we get from the public from people that care that you know this is how we deliver service.

Now I do want to kind of uh end with this, and uh, do want to save some time for some questions, meaning the fact that uh I've been here for 10 months, and uh my commitment remained unchanged.

Can I do better?

Absolutely.

Every single day I strive to do better.

But I try to fulfill these three commitments.

I try to be as responsive as I possibly can with the limited resources that I have.

Meaning the fact that I mentioned that we've been taking guns off the street, we've been providing long-term shelter for folks, we've been preventing criminal acts.

But the reality is we can absolutely do more.

But I just want to frame that in perspective.

We are part of a larger system, meaning the fact that, like any big city, crime occurs every single day.

A metro bus stop, metro route, it's all within the city itself.

And it's just sometimes it's just inevitable.

But how we respond, how we deter, that's gonna be key.

And the second thing too is the fact that, as I mentioned earlier, we average roughly 75 million riders on a day just based on the average.

So if I use my fingers and toes correctly, roughly 200,000 a day, a lot of those, if not a large majority, 99% or more of those are uneventful, right?

So which means we have done something right, or that's just extremely lucky.

I want to fulfill this commitment.

If we call, every post, every complaints, every single phone call I receive, I try to fulfill the three commitments by meaning the fact that I want to deliver services to to address those as much as can with the capac capacity and the resources that I have.

Because the moment I don't, three things just happen.

Either one, people think I can't do anything.

And number two, people think I won't do anything.

Or number three, they don't think I care.

Either one is gonna be catastrophic for me.

Well, Metro PD, at least for what my boss just mentioned to go back to the basic to deliver safe, clean, reliable, dependable services for everyone.

So with the message is uh I can do something with the resources I have, sometimes it is limited.

I will do something with the resources I have, and I do care.

Pinning any questions.

Thank you, Chief, for the presentation.

Um, we were joined um by Vice Chair Jackson and Councilmore Cayman.

Thank you both for being here.

Um first of all, thank you so much for the work that you do and all of the Metro police officers.

Um, you know, we've seen so much amazing work from all of the officers, um, especially lately working with HPD.

I know my office contacts Metro pretty much every week about concerns, and I mean it's just followed up on immediately.

So thank you so much for everything.

Um a couple of questions.

Um jurisdictions.

So I know that you're working with other you know entities um more than ever before, like you mentioned in the presentation, but where does your jurisdiction stop and HPD begin?

So if something happens at a metro station and then maybe the individual moves out off of that station, what are you able to do um or what have your officers done in the past um as far as working with HPD and jurisdictions?

Ma'am, that's actually a great question.

I'm glad you asked the question.

Perhaps I should do a better job briefing next time to cover that.

So the reality is we have the same enforcement authority as any state certified police officer.

So with that say, we can enforce almost everything, we're in the city of Houston, we're in Harris, Montgomery, Fort Bent, and large degree also Waller County.

But the goal is we try to focus within our system that you know that we need to address the bus stop, the bus shelter.

But just be mindful too of that's still part of the Harris County footprint, that's still part of HPD footprint.

This is why the collaboration is so important.

So the line gets extremely fuzzy.

You know, where do you start, where do you begin?

A good cop that cares, will extend beyond what's asked of them to see if they can address the problem.

For instance, if the bus, the problem occurred within my bus stop, we absolutely should address that.

Hit our bus, we should address that.

But I hope I have some member who can speak on my behalf, and at least you know, can testify to that.

But if there are problems outside my footprint, it's in the media area.

We can keep it clean, keep it safe.

My officers are committed to do it.

But uh, but it also all boiled down to this is a part I have to be honest and I have to manage expectation.

It's all about the capacity, what resources have available to me.

If I can, I will.

Yeah, and we've absolutely seen that in District A, especially recently.

We had um some um concerns at a bus station that kind of trickled out past the bus station, and um metro police stayed on top of it, and so yeah, I mean we've definitely seen that.

So, like even like the get the bad guys, they don't really know like they have no jurisdictional boundaries, right?

And then I we understand that too.

The goal is to how can we holistically address the problem?

And also, I also have a vested interest to address those problems because at some point those problems will feed into you know the system as as well.

So this is why the partnership is so critical.

Absolutely.

Um, when dealing with issues of um mental health concerns, um, especially with the new laws that just passed September 1st.

Does Metro Police Department um ever transport individuals who are seeking help, or are you waiting for other um organizations or HPD?

How does that work?

So, yes, so uh metro PD due transport depends on what the needs are, but we have a capability that a lot of law enforcement agency, our sister unit partners don't have here, it's the fact that we also have metro lift.

So we need to leverage those facilities we can.

Most of our contacts deal with the folks with mental health, at least those chronic mental health.

We try to use the softer posture of our clinician to come in contact.

And most of the time, I don't even like to use some of my frontline officer to go with the deal with the direct contact, right?

Because you can't have the same person try to, you know, try to run you off a facility, get you for trespassing and make your the rest like a few days before and have the same person offer service, right?

So we always try to use our clinician as the public facing to deal with them.

Now they the officer will be back there just to ensure everything is safe and you know act when needed if needed, right?

So the goal is just so Metro PD do do transport in a lot of ways.

And uh if there's a medical emergence, of course, we'll always leverage HFD to come and check the individual out to do the transport.

And then finally, um, if someone riding a bus um you has a safety concern, how do they report it to you?

There are many ways they can report it.

We have text line and we have uh uh you know uh numbers and then uh you know we have operators and all those are visible visibly you know available throughout our system from the bus and also our training system and we do encourage uh you know folks to call, right?

Just don't wait for the problem to occur to call, call in advance.

If we show up, you know what?

It's not much going on.

Perhaps we may just show up on time to prevent a problem.

So I do encourage them to utilize those information placards available throughout our system.

Great, thank you.

Um we're also joined by Councilmark Davis.

Um first in the queue, Councilmember Alcorn.

Thank you, Chair and great to see you, Chief.

Yes, doing a great job.

We miss you over here, though.

Come a long way since handling the noisy bars with me.

But um how many officers do you have now?

So, ma'am, I would uh the frontline officers right we have right now is uh close to 200.

The intent is to grow to roughly maybe around the 220s and two thirties.

Okay.

Front line officers.

And um, y'all are in budget season right now.

That is correct.

So I um I just looked, it looks like your safety across the system budget is 50 million.

Is that does that?

That's about roughly pretty accurate.

And is that an increase over last year or is that a significant increase?

It's really not so far, but uh I also have to response be responsible as well.

This is for transparency, meaning the fact that I do know there is a defined budget, and I sort of need to be as a gatekeeper in a budget.

So I have been re-evaluating my entire operation and shift resources to be able to maybe reduce some to increase where it's most needed.

So when you say 200 frontline officers, that's 200 people out there.

That means 200 frontline officers, the rank of officer, right?

We're still counting the supervisor, the lieutenant, and the but as far as people out there at the stops, uh the you know, monitoring crime, you know, whatever, you know, like our patrol officers kind of, you know.

Yes, ma'am, the frontline officer, yes, ma'am.

That that would be the 200 that is correct number that you're trying to grow.

And you you station them or you position them based on your heat map, based on where there's incidents.

Uh it seems to be a lot along the the platforms along the the lines where there are there are more incidents.

That's where I've kind of noticed an increase.

Yes, yes, ma'am.

Yes, ma'am.

And with good reason, and I with good reason I cannot over advertise, you know, all the time.

Sure, where everybody is, but that that seems to be yeah, and and council member peck may uh asked about how people reach, you know, if there if there is some kind of I mean, I've been riding the bus for you know all the years, once a week or not every week.

I'm not a pure complete purist, but I I've really had good experiences.

I've not had anything, you know, really scary happen or anything on the bus.

So but I know occasionally there is.

Is there a place where people can look at at stats of what happens um, you know, like our crime stats and what happens, uh is there a dashboard or anything where the public can be aware of of safety things that are happening?

Yes, ma'am, we we publish our stats.

Uh help me out here, team.

Do we publish on a monthly basis?

I believe we do, yeah.

There's a monthly basis we publish our stat our stats on the Metro website, yes, ma'am.

Okay, so I just need to look for that.

Yes, yes, ma'am.

Okay, well, thank you.

But I would definitely follow on that.

I'm just gonna double check.

No, I mean I'm looking around on your web on your website now, and you have cameras.

Um that's part of, I see, on the budget.

Yes, we we we we do, and uh those that's part of our technology expansion, you know, we can always do more and expand more.

And uh with different, you know, development technology, it's definitely going to help us in a lot of great ways, right?

And uh, you know, and then we all gonna try to venture into that to kind of leverage that heavily.

Okay, okay.

Well, thank you very much.

Uh and uh to get a better understanding of the the frontline officers, so 200 that are like deployed, and then how many more so you get the the rest of them are basically your supervisor and your support staff, like your sergeants, they still deploy, but so what's your overall staff?

My overall number is ma'am, I will give you a a estimate.

Yeah, so we're probably late 270 to 280.

Okay.

Okay, thank you very much.

Councilmark Castillo.

Thank you, Chair.

Chief, good to see you.

Thank you for being here and and providing the update.

You and your team are doing a fantastic job.

And there's been a noticeable difference specifically in District H with regard to safety on the rail and at our bus stops.

Thank you.

You know, I uh I drive by the Cavalcade station a lot.

I live close to it, so I see it multiple times a day.

I can't remember the last time I haven't seen a Metro PD or a fair checker or the platform being cleaned going by it.

And uh that has been an area of concern for the neighborhood, and y'all have responded and stepped up, worked with HPD really well as part of the district age patrol initiative to address those areas.

Uh so I appreciate that.

And you know, you mentioned some of the the new things that were being done, the morning uh cleaning and the care team.

The unit that's that's going in, the mobile unit that's going in that will provide the 24-hour presence.

What will determine you know how successful that is, or how are y'all measuring success with with that specifically?

So uh council member uh kind of like uh launch you know, leaning forward to to advertise my mobile command post that was referred to.

Uh tentatively it should be delivered probably around like uh the second quarter of uh 2026, which is around like June time frame.

So what that said is the best thing we can do right now is if there's a hot spot, this is a private location area.

We're just gonna deploy some resources to work in collaboration with our partner to get out there.

With the mobile command posts, so most of y'all probably approved the budget to purchase them before.

A lot of time agency use those mobile command posts for during crisis, during huge response, during disaster, catastrophic event, man-made a uh uh uh uh uh a natural disaster, right?

Our concept is slightly different.

We will use that for that when need to, or if need to.

However, those will be deployed on a daily, perhaps even weekly basis, meaning the fact that we will monitor basically by different metrics we're engaged by, the heat map with a crime need to take us to, or by requests with the problems may be.

So, what we're gonna do is we're gonna take that facility up to a location, a defined location, where the problems are and occupy that for a long time.

With good reason, when you bring a police facility there, naturally, all different law enforcement entity and different resources would gravitate there to holistically address the problem.

But y'all would say, hey chief, this is nothing new.

You know, we searched an area, but you know, areas that you know crime is gonna displace and over time, so it's not gonna really serve its purpose.

This is why the mobile storefront, the mobile station is so valuable.

As the crime patterns shift, we can shift the entire asset out there.

Over time, problems become smaller problems, smaller problems become issues, and hopefully it's just to eradicate at least mitigate them.

But to your point, sir, the priorities would be is heat map, data driven, and also by request, despite I as I mentioned earlier, I stay true to that.

Uh despite that I can look at a computer screen, you know, every single day, and perhaps that might be the highest you concentrated you know, heat areas that I need to be deployed to.

But most of the folks that know the problems know the neighborhoods, hey, you might want to deploy there.

Perhaps you may have the problem there, but the source of the problem is start from there, you know.

So, yes, sir.

So heat map, data-driven, crime-driven, and also to your point too, sir, is this from the feedback that we collect through the community meeting and through the trust that we have our partners throughout the community to tell us where we need it most.

And the goal is to if if if budget permit in the future not to over uh overcommit over uh telegraph that is to not just have the one asset, so perhaps in the future that will be kind of our model with multiple assets to successfully coverage the 1300 square miles.

Thank you.

And I appreciate you mentioned the holistic approach and you know, your your comment earlier about not just arresting your way out of the problem because it is more than that.

And with your care unit, with your community engagement, you know, you are not just focusing on the enforcement side, but also the service and support side that is a vital part of the equation.

So thank you for that.

Council member, to your point, uh, I often get a lot of comments too, hey Chief, you're not doing so well here on those comments are pretty pretty hard to take, but I need to take all of it, right?

Because those are true comments.

This is how I know how to fix the problem.

If not, if I just take all the goods, I just think I'm doing a good job, and if I do a pretty bad job, that I don't know.

So I I I welcome those comments as as well.

Council Murray came in.

Thank you, Chair.

Good morning, and Chief.

Uh, you and I go way back.

Yes, ma'am.

And it's great to see you in this uh position.

I know your heart is in it, and please uh relay our gratitude to the women and men that you work with within Metro PD.

We know that they're working hard, especially in those summer months.

Yes, ma'am.

Uh it is hot out there.

Yes, ma'am.

Um you mentioned, you know, the work, the important work of getting firearms off the streets.

Um it'd be helpful to know.

I know we don't have it in this presentation, but if you do have statistics and numbers, so how many engagements with an individual that did have a firearm, um just any way to quantify that um would be very helpful for me.

So, yes, ma'am.

So, what I can quantify is the fact that uh Texas is say open care state.

So the only one I can quantify is not the firearms become in contact every day, it's the firearm we're gonna take off the criminals every single day, right?

Sorry, thank you.

We can absolutely do that, yes, ma'am.

That would be terrific.

Um and then when you talk about platform presence, and this may be a question uh for our other friends at Metro, uh, and it's great to have y'all as well.

Um, in some other cities, right, there are actual platform barriers.

You cannot gain entry to the platform without a ticket that you've purchased.

So rather than having to have increasing presence, which is a strain on your resources, right?

We're we're designing in such a way, and I'm specifically referring to potentially around midtown, right?

That's where at least for district C, we get a lot of the complaints in.

Yes, ma'am.

Um, are there any plans to redesign some of those platforms to restrict that entry at the platform so that we don't have to keep having the same recurring issues over and over again?

So, ma'am, you're actually you're spot on, uh, meaning the fact that there was a time, and I'm making assumptions right now.

I have not been in Metro long enough to truly know all the analytics and have all the details.

So I'm just making an assumption.

So there was a time when we designed our system, the metro system.

You know, Houston, they call it the Southern Hospitality.

We all affront the city, and then we are a great city, and we can tell every single disaster.

I was I I told all my basically my law enforcement partners throughout the whole country.

The biggest problem we have during disaster was the fact that we asked people, what do you got no food?

Please don't bring us any food anymore.

The support, so so it's because Houston, such a great city.

There was a time when they designed that platform, you know, that was extremely, I guess, adequate and conducive for the environment at the time, right?

But the time has changed.

But I can only imagine uh this has been in discussion, but uh the reality is I would imagine that would be one of the strategic goes.

So uh I'm the security law enforcement guy, so have that, that would be great, because that would make my job so much easier, right?

But I know that's gonna take into a lot of consideration, budget, planning, forecasts, and stuff of that, right?

So perhaps I cannot answer that question today, but I welcome that posture.

Understood, I appreciate that.

And I I lastly wanted to thank you.

Um specifically for the partnership as an example at West Gray.

Um, you all, Metro PD has stepped up in such a way to increase uh security presence, especially when we have a lot of youth programming there, right?

And we're serving at West Gray very um vulnerable communities, right?

A lot of yes, ma'am, uh youth with disabilities, and we also want to make sure it's a welcoming place for everyone.

Yes, ma'am.

Uh, but you all have stepped up in such a way because Metro services through Metro Lyft, that location is very, very heavily used by Metro.

Yes, ma'am.

Um, but I wanted to give y'all a shout out for really working with the city uh to address some of the needs there, both short term and long term.

So thank you very much.

Yes, ma'am.

That's what it kind of answers segue back into, ma'am.

Your your point earlier, you know, what is the you know, the responsibility, what is the the phase line?

So this is the sometimes it's hard to distinguish, right?

We have an issue concern out there at that location because we have a certain ridership as it's vulnerable, then we increase our footprint to holistically address the issue.

So thank you, ma'am.

Thank you for bringing that up.

Councilmember Flickinger.

Thank you, ma'am.

Thank you, Chief, for everything you and your team do.

Uh I've got a question on the homeless when you're dealing with the homeless.

Yes, sir.

Can you walk me through how that actually works?

Uh you working in conjunction with the city or the county to try and get them into permanent housing or exactly we're doing.

So so yes, sir.

So unfortunately, just being homeless to self is is it's not a crime.

But we do know that uh, you know, homeless, you know, they do have a some of them, not all, you know.

And I truly kind of for my experience, I can frame homeless into kind of like three categories, right?

There are some just basically down in luck, they're down to the last penny, and then they got evicted.

But those are pretty easy, right?

You kind of kind of help them with some resources, they become you know, catapult them for it, and they can kind of you know seek resources.

The second type I do realize is the the drug dependency.

That that is huge too, right?

And the third thing is is basically some of them, you know, choose to be homeless because of the mental health nexus.

They're not committed to crime, but this is the mental health nexus.

So our goal is to have the so I'll just to from a layman perspective, because I don't have a high level of specificity what my you know clinicians do every single day, so I can't lay out all the resources.

They will come in contact, try to find out what the problems are, and most of the time they already know who they are, and then try to offer them services.

Some of them, i.e.

to say, hey, I need you know, medicine, blah, blah, blah.

You know, they'll probably try to divert them to the the social services, provide the medication that they need, or to say, hey, you know what, I don't think I feel too well, divert them to the hospital that potentially may need to do a mental health evaluation for them, or they say, hey, I don't feel too well, perhaps even go to the ER to get checked out, right?

And then for finding long-term service.

Some of them that actually took the service, we were able to get them to certain service in the long term.

But your question will focus on what is the near term.

So in the past, it's all about capacity as as as well.

From the diversion center to a few other places, they have limited bed, you know, to just available.

But by working with a homeless coalition uh lately, they were able to increase a lot of the capacity.

So even though some of those we can take them for a short turnaround, perhaps I can only imagine we see a problem getting ready to escalate, and then you can counter the homeless individual, and then they're willing to go to a shelter or whatever it is, can take them to at least house them for a 24 hours.

At least that's the right thing to do, too, right?

You know, give them a meal and et cetera, et cetera.

Now, the biggest challenge, I I I have to say this is this is the part.

And this is the part I revert back to.

Being Houstonian, our heart is always big and great.

Despite our best intention, the biggest challenges is the fact that a lot of groups, instead of like feeding the population at a defined location, where they could go to get the resources, they somehow like to come to downtown with good reason, right?

You know, they feel bad, they probably didn't have a meal.

And they feed him because by feeding them, they know it's a defined location in downtown, perhaps in my transit, they know where to get the resources they need versus to go to different location facility, they can get long-term resources.

But to your point to to basically wrap up in one sentence, we count on, we we come in contact with the homeless, the commission assess what the problems are, and to provide them the services they need.

If officer count in contact with them, we determine has the law been broken.

If not, we either like perhaps they're trespassing certain location, we give warning not to trespass.

If they elevate to a point a criminal act is committed, you know, we have to leverage the criminal justice system.

Or if there's a mental health nexus to that in crisis, we leverage the mental health to EDO process.

Okay.

Thank you.

I mean, obviously, our goal is not just to move them from one place to the next, but absolutely that's to find some long-term solutions.

Yes, sir, it's always a long-term solution.

And although it's not in my district, uh, I've got an acquaintance of mine that that lives down in the museum district, and he's telling me that the light rail station at Wheeler is still a significant issue.

So if you could just, when you get a chance, take a look at that as well.

Absolutely, sir.

Um and the last thing, and you mentioned it earlier, the uh enforcement of the HOV lanes.

Yes, sir.

Um I come in 59 pretty much every day.

Um, and I understand why they do enforcement, and I'm good with that, makes sense.

Uh the problem is where they actually place it.

Uh if traffic is moving well on the freeway, it will have a lot of congestion right where they're doing it.

In fact, I've almost been involved in a couple of accidents because you get over the overpass and all of a sudden everybody stopped.

Uh you know, if they can do that enforcement, maybe even back around San Decino River, uh that there's an entrance ramp.

It's got a large area.

And I think the vast majority of those people are entering the freeway between uh Kingwood Drive and Townsend Boulevard, and there's a large area up there where there'd be plenty of room, and I think it probably caused a lot less congestion on the freeway when they did it that way.

You know, council member, thank you for the feedback.

Uh, we are aware of the problem, and I thought I'd address that.

I did a couple of drive-by, maybe to address them a couple of days.

But so, sir, this is not a process problem, it's a people problem.

I will fix that.

I own it, yes, sir.

Okay.

Thank you, sir.

So thank you for those feedback.

Those are those are important.

Thank you.

Councilmember Davis.

Thank you, madam chair, for both uh bringing this uh Metro here and their presentation.

First of all, Chief Tin, it's so good to see you.

I agree with uh with uh our my colleague, Councilman Alcorn, I we really miss you uh in your role, but um I've I've just applauded the fact that I attend several of the board and uh meetings with Metro and the heroic work that you're doing at Metro is just phenomenal.

And congratulations on that and thank you for your service to that the role that you play in the chief and also to our interim president CEO, Brother Thomas, and we of course see each other uh sometime.

But I just had a few things I wanted to bring up for the FIFA.

I may it may have been mentioned earlier before I came into the chamber uh in regards to the preparation for the World Cup.

Uh do you all have uh is there an extra manpower that you you all have added to the Metro for the preparations of FIFA?

Yeah yes, sir.

So that's part of our growth, the projection of growth to increase.

We like I said a few months back, you know, we were able to to to reach a huge milestone to accomplish full frontline officer, full staff.

Now we actually increase that the staffing that we need.

On top of that, uh we have been regular meetings with our partner, which is the lead law enforcement agency for FIFA, it's gonna be HPE.

We've been working with them, and we also work with other sites, smaller agency, how we best can protect our footprint, and more importantly, is this is why we want to leverage a overtime program to get our partners involved, ride our system, not just to increase presence of our system during like regular time, right?

But also to load know our system to when during time critical events or your big events is most needed, that they know the system to be able to navigate around there.

Sure.

But the most important thing too, sir, is is is is to to change the mindset.

You are absolutely right, sir.

Can I increase a lot of staffing in the in the next uh eight, nine months?

Perhaps the answer is is is maybe not, right?

Right.

But the reality is is the fact that uh the bad guy they're watching this, uh close the red book, which means no one is allowed to take off during that time.

Sure.

So we will be at 100%.

Yes, sir.

Good.

And that and that is always a concern because the work that Houston First does in conjunction with the city um administration and HPD and everybody in preparation, because it is gonna be big, and it's gonna certainly impact our city, and we want that.

You know, but of course, public safety and safety for tourist, as well as the revenants is the priority to make sure that people are safe while at the same time enjoying uh the the fee for the World Cup.

Uh so good.

Commend you and praying that you guys really uh, because we need all of you in that respect.

Secondly, last thing I wanted to talk about.

When I do several of my town hall meetings, one of the things that I get always called and questions about is many of our residents, particularly senior citizens who go to the bus stop, the homeless people sleeping on the benches, you know, at several of those spots.

And I know that's probably a big concern of Metro in dealing with that.

And I'm glad what uh you were speaking to uh Councilmember Flickr about in regards to those homeless and what you do with that in assisting with the homeless coalition, but it it can be a problem, even though council we've we've done the sidewalk uh ordinance of removing, so we know and I know personally, especially in Fannin.

A lot of people may not know because I live there, but Fannon uh at the rail, along with Buffalo Speedway, uh, those areas is pretty oftentimes crowded with the homeless, especially under 16.

So is that become a real target with the sleeping on the benches and that type of thing, especially when we get to the World Cup event as well as just every day.

Yes, sir.

So we're good reason, right?

You know, they they're out there and get the shelter, despite the fact that even we put in a conveyor belt to kind of like move them along, provide services, because naturally there's a reason why they go back there.

Either A, they find some sort of comfort to shelter out of there, or someone be feeding them, or they can get the resources to panhandle what that maybe, right?

So we try holistically address the issue.

But to answer your question, sir, the long-term solution will be is once we increase the capacity for long-term like best or whatever that may be.

We're working on the angle.

And I believe I don't have the the homeless coalition stats in front of me right now.

I'll let them answer that question.

But uh they have makes some significant improvements in terms of the long-term housing side of it.

And they actually try to do more.

I know Chief Satterwright uh is overseeing the homeless coalition stuff, and then he's working on that angle as well, along with Mike Nichols.

So my goal is the fact that up until we get the long-term solution, I want to provide those immediate reliefs.

So, to your point, sir, wherever those locations is, but your staff definitely need like like we always do back XP D, right?

Hey, Chief, I need you to go to this check for your location.

Yeah.

So I need to have those locations, compile it, and send it to my team so we can put that on the conveyor belt and part of responsibilities.

And it's always good to have resources, absolutely.

But it's great to have resources to move towards the right direction and address problems where it's most needed.

Because if not, we're just gonna look at a heat map.

Hey, this is the problem where it is.

Perhaps that may not be the biggest problem.

The biggest problem to your point, that is important.

The seniors, the elderly, try to get a ride.

I don't want them to get homeless way either.

So yeah, absolutely.

Those are important, yes, sir.

Yeah, yeah.

Because some of them complain.

They go to the bus stop, homeless people there, and they don't know whether they should stay there or what.

So, sir, get that list.

I I promise you, we will address that.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Vice Chair Jackson.

Thank you, Chair.

Hey, um, good morning, and thank you for the presentation, and thank you all for um joining us um at this committee meeting.

Um, I came in a little bit um when you had already started the presentation.

And so the um skirt the slide to have area uh responsibility.

Yes, yes, ma'am.

Is that the um transit centers, the the different yes?

So every these are basically all the the service area that we cover.

Okay.

And the service facilities that we own, like in a thousands and a lot, right?

And then the next slide, well, basically, next slide, please.

With the maps.

So this is basically the heat map showing that we have responded to call in some way, shape, or form in those areas.

Okay.

Our areas actually pretty broad, meaning the fact that I I I made I'm not sure you you were here when I made a comment to put in perspective to frame it, we pretty much almost the size of the state of Rhode Island.

Right.

So we cover 14 cities, Houston, the biggest, and on top of that, four counties.

Harris is the center uh gravity, meaning we have Montgomery, Fort Bend, and also Waller County as well.

And some of the the areas that you um you guys are responsible for is the bus stops as well.

That that is correct.

Right.

And so I was just curious as we're talking about data.

Um, I went to the website just trying to see the data um incidents that's happening at service.

Um, if we could, as council members can get that information, it can kind of give us a good better snapshot of what's happening in our district um at the bus stops.

Um of course, my district is not like really on the rail downtown, but you know, we have do have um several transit centers, and so it would be helpful as we talk about community engagement, um, see the community involved.

We have initiatives that we're tackling um crime engagement, bringing the community together, credible messengers, and so having those hot spots is it would be good for us because we would know where to deploy our volunteers.

And so uh this is one thing that's gonna really gonna work is just have those volunteer.

We actually try to work on some sort of ambassador program in the future.

I don't want to advertise it, but ma'am, but to your point, I do like to ask a little more time for this because when I was HPD, I was spoiled because our crime staff kind of line up with the council district in Metro is is pretty broad.

So I really need a team to help me to build the product.

So it's gonna uh it's it's gonna take a little bit of time, but I promise I will deliver the product as well.

And then just you know, uh more detail on the projects or the initiatives that you have launched to pretty much engage the community or strengthen the community, that would be helpful as well.

I know you do ride alongs, but what other initiatives do you guys work on um with the community to strengthen that?

And then what um um programs do you have in place to um improve accountability um with with Metro?

Um so those are some questions that I have.

If you can get me, you don't have to get it to me out right now, but um be interesting.

So just just to be uh full transparency, ma'am.

You know, I just got here like you know, like yeah nine and a half.

I got that.

That's what I'm like okay.

So if I say that right now, these are like conceptual, right?

You know, that I want to do.

So uh my team always called me, Chief.

You're such a good idea, Barry.

I say, hey, good idea, Fair, just think of stuff and don't get stuff done.

I want the stuff get done, right?

So yeah, yes, ma'am.

So you have to give me some time, yes, ma'am.

Okay.

Yeah, so next time you'll have that information for us.

I I would strive to have that intention probably when the next meeting is if council member called me the next month, I perhaps would be struggling a little bit, yes, ma'am.

Okay, well, thank you for everything you do.

Yes, ma'am, thank you.

Staff from Councilmember Ramirez's office.

Thank you, madam chair, and thank you so much for your presentation.

I really appreciated it.

Um and how you laid everything out.

I have a couple follow-up questions.

You spoke a bit about the care unit that you have.

In terms of kind of accessing that, can anyone who is calling in a complaint um or is calling a flagging a concern, request that a care unit come to help out in a time of crisis, or does the Metro PD call them when they're at the scene?

How does that work?

So absolutely, right?

So uh basically uh the the Metro uh uh non-emergency number, when you call the number and say, I have a problem, you know, blah, blah, blah, with XYZ location, and then that homeless individual perhaps gonna need some resources.

Absolutely, we welcome those phone calls.

But the only problem we have right now is our capacity is kind of limited.

When we first built our care unit, it's basically line up with the hours where the facility you know is able to take in those individuals, right?

They need care.

But now the hours has expanded.

This is why I just mentioned earlier.

I want to double the size of my uh uh my care team to increase that capacity.

But I'm not there yet.

So safe to assume if uh regular work day, Monday through Friday, in a bar park, maybe eight to four in the afternoon, you'll be extremely successful to get the care unit out there.

However, I do encourage folks to call because we do tap in with the HPD, you know, units that like the homeless outreach team.

And also we have officers, although they're not clinician, but they do have some skill set they're trained in that and they could provide limited facility and resources to them.

And they are trained in terms of how to provide those resources.

Are they as good as the care unit?

Perhaps maybe not, it's terms in terms of knowledge, but the commitment is still second to none.

Wonderful.

Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am.

Um, and then you spoke a bit about FIFA arriving, and I think we all know how big it's going to be in this hundred percent staffing goal that you have during FIFA.

Could you speak a bit more perhaps to the plan um for when FIFA arrives and we see ridership increasing around town?

Um, I think there's folks who are worried about a pushing out of homeless to outer areas.

I know that this is a issue that's risen a bit as we've seen greater enforcement in the downtown area.

Um there's been neighborhoods kind of in the surrounding downtown areas who have said, well, now you know the folks who were problems in downtown have moved to our area of the city and the problem is not being addressed.

So what do you see happening there when we're seeing increased capacity in the downtown area?

Well, the intent is most riders who probably most likely utilize our red line and also to a large degree our green line contingent upon where some of those events is gonna be, those those watch party type.

So to answer your question, we will search those key areas with a lot of riders.

That's the highest risk, but it's just from perspective, we are gonna be on the global stage and we have one chance to give the best snapshot.

We will try to deliver the best snapshot, at least from the transit, you know, perspective.

And uh, but the reality is it was never the goal, the intent just to kind of displace, right?

And the goal with the goal and intent that the the end state is always to find long-term resources to house those individuals that's most needed.

But I don't know what the optics is out there, I don't know what the perspective, and I don't know what that may be, but perhaps that may be some you know, a a rumor, urban legend one of that maybe, or it may be true.

I I don't know.

But the the reality is it was never the goal just to just to kick somewhere off to go somewhere else.

That was because the reality is it's a metro, if we move them along somewhere else, it's not a problem downtown, but it's still a problem down the road.

And I said, take my resources away from that.

My goal is to to the best solvability, not just fix the symptom, but truly get down with a problem is to fix the problem.

But there are gonna be challenges, resources, capacity, and then to a large degree is the fact that there are some folks, let's just say the homeless, for instance.

We increase resources in downtown, and then we probably message hey, you know, don't feed them there, don't so they can't hand pan handle, but it's still it's not against the law for them to be homeless.

Maybe they will naturally go somewhere else so it's more conducive for them.

So I I don't know what the right answer is.

But the goal is this is my commitment, is the fact that we are not trying to displace anybody.

The goal is is we try to deliver services to the people that most need it, all I like.

Thank you so much.

All right, I don't see anyone else in the queue.

Thank you again, Chief, for the presentation.

We appreciate it.

Thanks so much, ma'am.

Thank you.

Um, and I don't see any public speakers signed up.

Was there anyone in the audience that wanted to speak?

All right.

Well, our um next scheduled meeting will be on Tuesday, October 14th at 10 o'clock AM, and we stand adjourned, and the