March 27, 2021- 9:00 p.m
The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority voted Thursday to boost its contracts with law enforcement by $36 million through the end of this year amid a spike in crime across the city.
The move will increase funding from $645,675,758 to $681,675,758, which is $75 million less than the $111 million that was originally proposed.
The contracts are with the LAPD, the LA County Sheriff’s Department, and the Long Beach Police Department.
It comes as Los Angeles deals with a spike in crime throughout the city.
“Our hope is that the public and the board understand that we’re trying as a staff to get to a good balance here in terms of policing on our system, trying to get to a happy medium here understanding both perspectives,” LA Metro CEO Phillip Washington said before the vote, according to CBSLA.
“I do understand both perspectives, from a lived experience as an African American male, I understand completely what we are saying about policing, but also as someone who reviews every incident report on the system, I do believe we need some level of security on the system.”
Los Angeles has seen rising crime rates this year, a trend that carried over from 2020. The city recorded 39 homicides in January, a 34% increase over the same time last year, according to Crosstown, a non-profit news outlet based out of the USC Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism.
The continuing rise comes after a particularly violent 2020, when the city saw 350 homicides, which is 36% more than in 2019, Crosstown reports.
