Star Tribune
Metro Transit expands fare inspection efforts to bus rapid transit lines
Metro Transit is taking fare compliance efforts to its bus rapid transit lines.
On Monday, police officers, community service officers and Transit Rider Investment Program (TRIP) agents carried out an “educational operation” at the Brooklyn Center Transit Station as they asked riders to show proof they had paid for their trips and kicked off the agency’s next phase of cracking down on fare dodgers.
“We don’t want to see you pay fines, we want you to pay fares,” said Metro Transit Police Chief Ernest Morales III.
The agency in December began a concerted effort to conduct fare compliance checks on the Blue and Green light-rail lines. In the months that followed, non-sworn community service officers and TRIP agents have issued nearly 1,200 citations to riders who didn’t pay their fares. But only 38 people have paid the $35 administrative fines so far, said Leah Palmer, interim manager of the TRIP program.
Violators have 90 days to pay the fines.
Metro Transit has 12 unarmed TRIP agents who are contracted with Allied Universal Security Services and plans to hire up to 12 more to fully staff up and cover the expansion onto the rapid bus lines.
The agents in their royal blue jackets check to see if riders have paid, but also interact with passengers who misbehave or may need to be connected with social services. The agents were added in February to provide an increased official presence on light-rail trains as part of Metro Transit’s effort to beat back crime and make riding transit safer.
The agency is down 68 police officers, Morales said. By using TRIP agents and community service officers to handle fare checks, officers can respond to more serious crimes, he said.
TRIP agents began riding the C and D lines Monday. Both lines begin their routes at the Brooklyn Center Transit Station. The C-Line follows Penn Avenue and Olson Highway to downtown Minneapolis. The D-Line follows Emerson, Fremont and Chicago avenues to the Mall of America. Some riders on Monday simply skipped the payment machines on the platform, but were ushered off the bus and directed to the machines.
Monday’s event was also aimed at introducing riders who struggle to pay their fare to the Transit Assistance Program (TAP). The program allows low-income earners to get bus cards that allow them to ride for $1, which is below the regular bus fare of $2 during nonpeak hours and $2.50 during rush hours.
About 10 people signed up for TAP on Monday, said program coordinator Andrea Kiepe as she manned a table inside the transit station.
“We are helping people who are not able to afford the fare and qualify for the reduced fare,” Morales said.
Star Tribune
Falcon Heights, St. Anthony renew police contract that ended following Philando Castile’s killing by police
Years after their contentious split, St. Anthony police officers will once again patrol the city of Falcon Heights.
St. Anthony had policed the neighboring suburb for more than 20 years until the two cities severed their agreement after Castile was killed during a 2016 traffic stop in Falcon Heights.
Ever since, Falcon Heights has been paying the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office to police the small city that surrounds the State Fairgrounds. But Sheriff Bob Fletcher has urged the city for years to find a more permanent arraignment. Sheriff’s deputies do not patrol any of the neighboring towns and suburbs around Falcon Heights, which makes the city difficult to staff with deputies often having to travel long distances to respond to emergencies, the Sheriff’s Office has said.
The city and the Sheriff’s Office first mutually agreed to part ways in 2021, but Falcon Heights couldn’t find another agency take over until now. The city of about 5,000 has long said that it would be impractical to try to create its own police force.
Falcon Heights Mayor Randy Gustafson said he is excited the city will once again have “a community-oriented policing model.”
“That’s something I’ve wanted to see returned and our community wanted to see returned,” he said. “And this gives us that chance.”
The contract will cost Falcon Heights roughly $1.8 million a year. St. Anthony officials estimate the department will need to add nine more officers and will ask for Falcon Heights’ financial help in upgrading its police facilities.
“We want to continue to be a welcoming, inclusive community,” Mayor Wendy Webstersaid. “And at the same time, we know we have a tremendous need for affordable housing.”
Webster and some on the council also said they were worried about project leaders not having immediate plans to build an outdoor playground, arguing that was a necessary amenity for children. And council members said the agreement must include plans to address the environmental condition on the site, which city leaders say has contamination issues.
“The thing I am most careful and concerned about is you are also buying a polluted piece of land. I want to make sure you are safe in your facilities,” Council Member Lona Doolan said, adding that “if it was any other property in our community, I wouldn’t have any hesitation or reservation.”
The council approved the rezoning request with several requirements, including that a playground be constructed within two years, and that the city receive plans for parking, staffing, and added landscaping, as well as environmental reports with proposals on addressing the pollution concerns.
Star Tribune
US confirms North Korea has sent 3,000 troops to Russia for training and possible Ukraine combat
WASHINGTON — The U.S. said Wednesday that 3,000 North Korean troops have deployed to Russia and are training at several locations, calling the move very serious and warning that those forces will be ”fair game” if they go into combat in Ukraine.
The deployment raises the potential for the North Koreans to join Russian forces in Ukraine and suggests expanded military ties between the two nations as Moscow seeks weapons and troops to gain ground in a grinding war that has stalemated after more than two years.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin called it a ”next step” after the North has provided Russia with arms, and said Pyongyang could face consequences for aiding Russia directly. His comments were the first public U.S. confirmation of North Korea sending troops to Russia — a development South Korean officials disclosed but was denied by Pyongyang and Moscow.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby said the U.S. believes that at least 3,000 North Korean soldiers traveled by ship to Vladivostok, Russia’s largest Pacific port, in early to mid-October.
”These soldiers then traveled onward to multiple Russian military training sites in eastern Russia, where they are currently undergoing training,” Kirby said. ”We do not yet know whether these soldiers will enter into combat alongside the Russian military, but this is certainly a highly concerning probability.”
Kirby said they could go to western Russian and then engage in combat against Ukraine’s forces, but both he and Austin said the U.S. continues to assess the situation.
Exactly what the North Korean troops are doing in Russia was ”left to be seen,” Austin told reporters in Rome.
He added: ”If they’re co-belligerents, their intention is to participate in this war on Russia’s behalf, that is a very, very serious issue, and it will have impacts not only in Europe, it will also impact things in the Indo-Pacific.”
