CapMetro adds security guards to high traffic centers and stops

Unarmed security guards are already stationed at CapMetro’s various maintenance facilities, but the company plans to expand their reach to transit centers and major stops due to public safety concerns, Gardner Tabon, CapMetro’s executive vice president, systemwide accessibility and chief safety officer, said at last week’s Operations, Planning and Safety Committee meeting. 

“We have made a decision, based on feedback we’ve gotten from the public, our customers as well as frontline employees, that we’d be better served having a greater presence at our transit centers,” Tabon said at the meeting. “Soon…our customers will have an even more comfortable environment … having security eyes on the activities that are happening at our transit centers.”

The guards will at first be located at the South Congress transit center, Tech Ridge bus stop, Republic Square bus stop, and North Lamar transit center.

CapMetro’s current approach to public safety includes public safety ambassadors who are specially trained to help individuals with substance abuse or mental health issues or other people who need extra assistance at the transit centers. However, public and stakeholder feedback asked for those ambassadors to be riding the buses on routes with higher numbers of incidents, so the contracted security guards are being placed at the centers to help fill the need for more eyes on the ground, Dottie Watkins, CapMetro’s president and CEO, said at the meeting.  

“Having our contracted security help us fill this hole gives us the ability to take the data we already have about incidents on the system, gather more data because we’ll have more eyes out there to tell us what’s going on at these hours that we don’t currently have staff out there and then be able to thoughtfully move on from there,” Watkins said at the meeting.  

Tabon said CapMetro is planning to evaluate the effectiveness of the security guard pilot program in around four to six months.

The guards aren’t replacing the planned police force. The Capital Metro Transit Police Department plans to get certification from the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement by this spring, and 12 officers are expected to start operations in 2025.