Metro needs to hire hundreds of police officers. New board chair says it'll be a challenge

Fernando Dutra’s friends are excited that the Whittier City Council member is now the chair of the Metro Board. He says they're contacting him to tell him when their rides were easy and clean, to celebrate the diversity of riders on the system and to point out problems like trash or graffiti.

“I tell ‘em, go on the [LA Metro Transit Watch app], and let us know,” Dutra said in a Zoom interview with LAist. “Boom — by the time they get back, it’s clean.”

Dutra’s not new to the body that governs Metro, having been on the board since 2021. But his responsibilities expanded after he inherited the Metro Board chair's gavel from L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn last month.

As chair, Dutra said, one of his priorities will be ensuring the timely completion of capital projects that stay within budget, pointing to the soon-to-open A-Line extension as an example.

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Below are selections from our interview with Dutra, in which he discusses more of his priorities, Metro’s new public safety department and his time riding the system. You can listen to the full interview here.

Positive first impressions of new Metro police chief

Kavish Harjai, LAist: One of the biggest things Metro has done on [safety] is make the decision to stand up its own public safety department. [Over the next five years, Metro plans to hire about 400 police officers.] This year brought the first piece of major news about that, which was the hiring of Chief Bill Scott. Have you had the chance to speak with him? I’m curious what those early discussions have been about.

Fernando Dutra: I have had a chance to meet with him, but I’m going to get a chance to meet with him over the next 30 days again, so we’ll go into more detail. But look, we have a highly focused professional that’s familiar with the community. When we did our search, we searched nationally, and there’s a reason why he came on top.

He’s familiar with our community. Los Angeles is a special place. We’re, I think, one of the most diverse cities in the world, and he knows that. He’s familiar with each one of the other [police] agencies, as well. That’s a big deal because you have to understand the people you’re working with. He’s familiar with LAPD, he’s familiar with the [L.A. County] Sheriff's [Department].

The new chair of L.A. Metro's Board, Fernando Dutra, left, said Chief Bill Scott, fourth from left, has the necessary connections and expertise to succeed as the chief of the agency's new police force.

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L.A. Metro

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He knows these people, and I could tell, just by watching him communicate with some of the other leaders in each one of those agencies, that he’s well respected.

Look, at the end of the day, you can be a great leader, but unless people can connect with you, they may not follow you. I think he’s someone that people connect with, so I’m looking forward to that.

“Not confused” about challenges hiring police officers

Harjai: One of the challenges facing larger police agencies is recruitment, and it has been since the pandemic. I’m curious if that has come up in any conversations you’ve had with [Bill Scott] or if you have any personal views about the challenges that lay ahead.

Dutra: We’re not confused about the fact that this is a competitive market. I think what we offer, if you will, is something different. ...

We’re going to be focused on mental health, on the homelessness and on services. So not only are you going to be still focused on security, but you’re also going to get those other disciplines that I think are going to add to the position. [...] It’s something brand new. I think because of that we’re going to attract an individual that wants something a little bit more expanded than just focused on security.

We’re going to have to be competitive. In my own city, as an example, we made being a cop in Whittier a big deal. So we offer $75,000, for example, toward buying a home in our city. ...

We’re going to have to follow those same rules at Metro. We’re going to have to be very competitive in terms of salary and benefits but also the addition of other services, mental health and homelessness, and understanding how they are part of a bigger system.

Riding Metro

Harjai: How often do you ride the system? Is that going to change? Is it going to increase? How do you see that for next year?

Dutra: I think it’s going to increase, for sure. As a family, we’ve taken the [A]-line and [C]-line frequently. Even before I got on Metro, I’ve been doing that for years. I’ve taken the J-line before. It’s been awhile, but now, going to downtown L.A. to Union Station, we did that, and it was a good experience.

Fernando Dutra, who took on the role of L.A. Metro board chair in July, said he will ride the system more regularly.

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Myung J. Chun

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We did find — I’ll be clear — we did find an area at the 710 connection there, where there was some graffiti. We found some trash, quite frankly. We notified Metro immediately, and I think on the way back, everything was clean. By the time we got back on the line, everything was 100% clean. That to me is customer service, and that’s what we’re going to have to provide.

We need to change the perception, and I think we can do it with responses that are appropriate to when people ask for assistance.

Transportation projects in Southeast L.A. County

Harjai: You’ve been clear that despite representing the Gateway Cities on the board, you won't solely focus on the interests of Southeast L.A. County. But I did want to ask [...] what are the biggest mobility and transportation challenges facing the communities you represent?

Dutra: Over the last six years, there’s been a heightened focus, if you will, in the Southeast cities, specifically the Southeast Gateway Line. ... Imagine this, that line itself is going to connect downtown Los Angeles to the city of Artesia, the furthest city east of Los Angeles, and all the communities between that.

What that does is that it offers the east side a sense of hope, right, that the money is being spent on the east side.

If you think in terms of the types of cities that we have, we have some of the most disadvantaged communities in Los Angeles [and] some of the highest densified communities in the entire country, thinking in terms of Cudahy and Huntington Park and some of those small communities. You think of the density in those cities, and so that density means that there are more people that need public transportation to go back and forth to work. ...

Then of course we have the [Eastside Transit Corridor], the line that’s coming to Whittier. Now, that’s years away. But all of these future planning, light rail transit opportunities, they give us hope. They give the people on the east side hope.