BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE BILL NO: sb 1236
SENATOR MARK DESAULNIER, CHAIRMAN AUTHOR: monning
VERSION: 2/20/14
Analysis by: Mark Stivers FISCAL: yes
Hearing date: April 22, 2014
SUBJECT:
Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District
DESCRIPTION:
This bill authorizes the Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit
District to adopt ordinances relating to specified infractions
on its system and to designate district employees or contracted
security officers to enforce these ordinances as well as
violations of specified state laws.
ANALYSIS:
Penal Code Sections 640 and 640.5 make it an infraction for a
person to engage in any of the following activities in a vehicle
or facility of any transit district:
Fare evasion.
Misuse of a transfer, pass, ticket, or token with the intent
to evade the payment of a fare.
Unauthorized use of a discount ticket or failure to present
acceptable proof of eligibility to use a discount ticket.
Eating, drinking, or smoking in areas where the system
operator has prohibited those activities.
Expectorating.
Skateboarding, roller skating, bicycle riding, or roller
blading, except as necessary for utilization of the transit
facility by a bicyclist.
The sale or peddling of goods, merchandise, property, or
services without written consent if the public transportation
system has prohibited those acts.
Disturbing another person by loud or unreasonable noise.
Defacing facilities or vehicles with graffiti. [Section 640.5
relates only to this infraction.]
Public Utilities Code Section 99170 makes it an infraction for a
person to do any of the following with respect to the property,
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facilities, or vehicles of a transit district:
Operate, interfere with, enter into, or climb on or in the
property, facilities, or vehicles of the transit district
without permission.
Interfere with the operator or operation of a transit vehicle,
or impede the safe boarding or alighting of passengers.
Extend any portion of the body through a window opening of a
transit vehicle in a manner that may cause harm or injury.
Throw an object from a transit vehicle.
Commit an act or engage in a behavior that may, with
reasonable foreseeability, cause harm or injury to any person
or property.
Violate a notice, prohibition, instruction, or direction on a
sign that is intended to provide for the safety and security
of transit passengers, or the safe and secure operation of the
transit system.
Existing law allows specified transit operators to designate
employees or contractors to issue citations for infractions
referenced in Penal Code Section 640, provided that these
individuals complete a specialized training course. These
designated individuals are not peace officers and have no
authority to carry weapons or exercise the powers of arrest.
Other transit operators not named in this law must rely on city
or county police officers to enforce such violations.
Current law establishes the Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit
District to provide transit services to the Cities of Santa Cruz
and Capitola and adjacent portions of unincorporated Santa Cruz
County. The Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District is not one
of the transit operators authorized to designate individuals to
issue Penal Code Section 640 infraction citations.
This bill authorizes the Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit
District to adopt ordinances making it an infraction for persons
to:
Knowingly give false information to an enforcement officer or
otherwise obstruct the issuance of a citation.
Engage in the unauthorized operation of, interference with,
entry into, climbing upon, attaching to, or loitering on or in
transit facilities or other transit property.
Engage in the removal, displacement, injury, destruction, or
obstruction of any district structure or fixture.
Violate conditions established by the district under which a
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passenger may board a vehicle with a bicycle and where the
bicycle may be stowed.
The bill further authorizes the Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit
District to designate district employees or contracted security
officers to enforce these ordinances as well as violations of
Penal Code Section 640 and the graffiti infraction in Penal Code
Section 640.5.
COMMENTS:
1.Purpose of the bill . According to the author, it is
imperative that transit users feel safe and secure. Many
transit operators, however, must contact their local law
enforcement agencies to enforce infractions on transit
vehicles or in stations, which is burdensome on the
understaffed law enforcement agencies if they can respond at
all. This bill allows the Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit
District to designate district employees or contracted
security officers to enforce specified transit infractions and
also allows the district to adopt ordinances relating to
specified new infractions.
2.Some activities already illegal . This bill authorizes the
Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District to create four new
infractions via ordinance. Two of these offenses, the ones
relating to the unauthorized operation, interference with, or
entry into transit facilities or other transit property and to
the removal, destruction, or obstruction of any district
structure or fixture, are already illegal as a matter of state
law. The committee may wish to consider limiting any new
infractions in the bill to those activities that are not
already covered and delete loitering from the list of new
infractions.
3.Why not go statewide ? To the extent that knowingly providing
false information to enforcement officers and inappropriately
storing bicycles on transit vehicles are problems in Santa
Cruz, they are likely also problems for other transit
operators. The committee may wish to consider applying these
new infractions statewide.
Moreover, current law allows only specified transit operators
to designate employees and contracted security officers to
enforce transit infractions. These operators include
Sacramento Regional Transit, Foothill Transit, CalTrain,
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Altamont Commuter Express, and any transit agency operating
rail service. All others must rely on local police, for whom
transit infractions are likely a low priority. Given that
safety is important on all transit systems and that transit
operators are public entities accountable to users and
constituents, it is not clear why all transit operators do not
have such authority. It appears that the current exclusive
list is simply a function of which operators have specifically
asked for the authority. The committee may wish to provide
all transit operators with the authority to designate
employees or contractors to enforce infractions, provided that
the individuals are properly trained.
4.Why not cover all infractions ? Where current law allows
specified transit operators to designate individuals to
enforce infractions, it limits its enforcement authority to
violations of Penal Code Section 640. Yet Penal Code Section
640.5 and Public Utilities Code Section 99170 enumerate other
similar transit infractions. As with the Penal Code Section
640 violations, local police officers are unlikely to make
enforcement of the other violations a priority. The committee
may wish to consider allowing designated enforcement personnel
to enforce the entire range of transit infractions, not just
those listed in Penal Code Section 640.
5.Keeping drivers safe and focused . The author plans to offer
amendments in committee to prohibit a transit operator from
designating bus and train drivers as enforcement officers. A
driver's priority must be the safe operation of the vehicle.
In addition, drivers are in a poor position to shield
themselves from abuse or attack from disgruntled violators.
POSITIONS: (Communicated to the committee before noon on
Wednesday, April 16,
2014.)
SUPPORT: Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District
(sponsor)
OPPOSED: None received.