Portland Police Chief Charles Moose asked critics to be patient with
Tri-Met as the transit agency shifts toward community policing.

Still, Tri-Met is faced with skeptics who thought they heard the same
message from the transit agency four years ago but didn't see much action.

=============================

TRI-MET DEVELOPS FAR-REACHING SECURITY PLAN
      Oregonian, The (Portland, OR)
      September 19, 1997
      DAVID R. ANDERSON of the Oregonian Staff
--------------------------------------------------------
WESTSIDE RAIL: A TURF FOR GANGS?
      Oregonian, The (Portland, OR)
      October 20, 1997
      HOLLY DANKS of the Oregonian Staff
---------------------------------

ROCKWOOD PLANS A FACE-LIFT FOR FUTURE
Oregonian, The (Portland, OR)
November 20, 1997
LISA GRACE LEDNICER of the Oregonian Staff

---------------------------------------------------------

TRI-MET DEVELOPS FAR-REACHING SECURITY PLAN
      Oregonian, The (Portland, OR)
      September 19, 1997
      DAVID R. ANDERSON of the Oregonian Staff
 

      Tri-Met develops far-reaching security plan Some critics are skeptical,
saying the agency has been slow to respond to safety concerns

      Tri-Met: Earlier plan has not been fully implemented

      Tri-Met officials have drafted a comprehensive security plan that
addresses everything from crisis training for drivers to a portable surveillance system.

      The long-term plan is not in response to recent violence, including a
deadly shooting, but is a new requirement of the Federal Transit Administration
. However, even without that demand, Tri-Met would work to guarantee
the system is safe for all riders, said Tom Walsh, Tri-Met general manager.

      Some outsiders say the security plan represents a shift in Tri-Met's
thinking, from being reactive to getting ahead of security concerns.

      The ambitious plan, with 54 specific proposals in the goals chapter alone,
includes high-tech equipment, citizen foot patrols, a new crime prevention
coordinator and aggressive prosecution of crimes committed while riding
on public transportation. The plan also will include references to procedures
that police have for specific tactical operations, such as hostage crises and
bomb threats.

Portland Police Chief Charles Moose asked critics to be patient with
Tri-Met as the transit agency shifts toward community policing.

      ``It is a big machine, and we need to keep that in mind,'' he said. Moose
has reason to be hopeful because one of his captains, Larry Ratcliff, took
over as security chief through the police bureau's contract with Tri-Met.

Still, Tri-Met is faced with skeptics who thought they heard the same
message from the transit agency four years ago but didn't see much action.

      Last week at Moose's Chief's Forum, community leaders and crime
prevention specialists had pointed questions about Tri-Met's slow response to
safety issues.

      Why, after 10 years of operation, are there no emergency phones at
MAX light-rail platforms? Why is it so difficult to get bus stops moved to
better-lighted areas? Why is drug dealing so blatant at the bus shelter at
North Albina Avenue and Alberta Street? Why wasn't there a video camera
on the No. 4 Fessenden bus when Johnny W. Simmons, 16, was shot and
killed Aug. 23?

      Tri-Met officials say they have been working on the problems. The
transit agency has increased its spending on direct and indirect security,
from police to personnel such as fare inspectors, an average of 16 percent
a year the past four years, said Bruce Harder, Tri-Met's finance director.
This year, Tri-Met will spend $7 million on all security.

      Walsh said Tri-Met's wakeup call came in October 1993, when gang
members wounded a 14-year-old bystander when they opened fire on the
No. 4 bus, the same bus route Simmons was killed on.

      ``It's not something where we could take the posture that society is
getting more violent, and there's nothing we can do, or we operate on the
streets and it's somebody else's problem,'' Walsh said.

      But in early 1994 at Tri-Met's request, former Multnomah County
Sheriff Don Clark drafted a security plan after two people were shot
on buses in fall 1993. It is still not fully implemented.

      --------Cut---------

 The plan, which must be submitted to the federal agency in January,
includes some things already in place, such as a Multnomah County
deputy district attorney assigned full time to prosecute crimes committed
on Tri-Met property.

-----Cut--------

      * In July, Tri-Met hired its first crime prevention coordinator. Peg
Caliendo will conduct a safety audit of Tri-Met facilities and organize
community groups. Citizen patrols might monitor park-and-ride lots,
and businesses will be encouraged to participate in adopt-a-stop to
keep an area clean and, like block homes, give people waiting for a
bus a place to go if they need help.

      -------Cut----------

      Another new step for Tri-Met has been to form a citizens' advisory
committee on security issues. It has members from Gresham to Hillsboro,
North Portland to Milwaukie.
 

______________________________________________________

WESTSIDE RAIL: A TURF FOR GANGS?
      Oregonian, The
      October 20, 1997
      HOLLY DANKS

      Summary: Officials fear rising violence stems from a struggle to dominate MAX

      ``The gangsters are shooting at each other;they are fighting each other;  
they are chasing each other.'' -- Sgt. John Landon, Washington County 
Interagency Gang Enforcement Team

      A rise in gang violence in Washington County may go beyond neighborhood 
boundaries and decades of bad blood.

      A variety of officials and gang experts think it's part of an organized Latino gang 
offensive to secure turf along the new westside light-rail line, the region's shiny 
mass-transit system. With westside MAX still a year from completion, an 18th 
Street gang from Portland is trying to claim the 18-mile stretch of tracks as 
its turf. The Rolling 54s, an 18th Street set, is said to run the drug distribution 
system on the eastside MAX and to want control of the line west into 
Washington County.

      ----------Cut--------------

      ``It's like the I-5 corridor or like any sidewalk'' that gang members use
for transportation and dealing, said Larry Ratcliff, chief of Tri-Met security 
and a former member of the Portland Police Bureau's gang team. ``Gangs are
going to be using the trains.''
 

-------CUT-----------

      ``With MAX, things are going to get worse,'' said a Hillsboro man who grew up
around gangs and has cousins in rival 18th and 12th Street sets. ``The guys from 
Portland are going to try to run here.''

      The man, a Mexican-American in his late 20s, is in the Washington County jail 
awaiting trial. He volunteered to talk about Washington County gangs because he 
thinks the only way to fight back is to wake up parents, police and gangsters.

      On the advice of his attorney, he agreed to an interview -- in the presence of 
a Washington County sheriff's investigator -- only if his name and identifying details 
weren't used.

      His comments support what some police and local gang experts are saying.
--------------Cut----------------- 

      He pointed out, however, that when light-rail planning started in the mid-1980s,
``gangs were something that happened in California.''

      Light rail's opening in coincided with the first influx of gangsters to the Portland area,
Ratcliff said, making it appear that MAX was to blame or at least a gang attraction.

      Now, he said, ``we are more aware of gang problems and more sophisticated
in dealing with gangs.''

    ----------Cut---------------

      ``Nobody wants to admit that light rail is going to cause a problem,'' said Steven 
Stroud, a youth gangs outreach worker with the Northeast Coalition of Neighborhoods
. ``It's certainly going to benefit a lot of people. But it's also going to bring in the gangs.''

      Louie Lira, who works with Latino gangs for the Northeast Coalition and Portland
Youth Gangs Task Force, said money is the root of the fight -- and ``who is going 
to make more money.''

      ``MAX is good transportation for a lot of gang members,'' Lira said. ``
And dope activity, I think, is going to increase.''

    __________________________________________________________________
 

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