Metro tunnel security changing guards

The private security firm that works for Sound Transit will expand its territory into the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel next month, as part of King County Metro's attempt to reassure riders the five downtown stations are safe.

Meanwhile, county sheriff's deputies will be reduced, after a temporary surge this winter, when at least one armed deputy patrolled each station.

The private Securitas USA force will have more training than the existing unarmed guards from Olympic Security and can intervene in disputes, King County Executive Dow Constantine said in an announcement Thursday. Securitas will continue to work in the tunnel until at least mid-2011.

Securitas personnel already patrol Sound Transit train stations and conduct fare enforcement on the new Link light-rail line.

On Jan. 28, a 15-year-old girl at Westlake Station was kicked in the head six times by another girl as three Olympic guards called for police but didn't step into the fray. Metro's contract with Olympic calls for guards to "observe and report," and the firm had trained its staff not to intervene.

After videotape of the beating made national news, Constantine assigned members of the sheriff's transit police unit to be posted at tunnel stations. Recently, as many as three to five deputies and city police could be seen at the platforms.

Metro has begun to reduce the numbers of deputies this week, said general manager Kevin Desmond. By next month, there will be fewer than one deputy per station but more than the two deputies for the entire tunnel that existed before Jan. 28.

Desmond said the move to Securitas will cost Metro an estimated $1.1 million more than relying on Olympic, which paid starting wages around $11 an hour. Olympic will continue to have other duties and patrol other Metro property besides the tunnel, through Oct. 31, when its five-year contract expires.

From 1998 to 2005, Metro hired off-duty Seattle police officers for around $40 an hour, to patrol each tunnel station in pairs. Sgt. Rich O'Neill, president of the Seattle Police Guild, said Thursday the Securitas guards "are still unarmed security guards with no arrest authority."

Desmond said a court ruling barred Metro from hiring off-duty police unless they are made full-time county employees. In other interviews, Metro officials have said the unarmed guards provide more eyes and ears for the money and do many tasks, such as property inspection and customer service, that are below the level of police work.

Mike Lindblom: 206-515-5631 or mlindblom@seattletimes.com