ATLANTA — MARTA officials are detailing plans to increase security across the transit system following several recent stabbings and shootings and as Atlanta prepares to host FIFA World Cup matches.
The plans come as MARTA remains under a federal investigation into its safety standards.
MARTA Interim General Manager Jonathan Hunt acknowledged concerns about safety and said the agency is continuing efforts to improve.
“MARTA is not perfect but we will continue to strive to go from good to great,” Hunt said.
Ahead of the World Cup, MARTA has brought in transit officers from other cities to assist with patrols. Hunt said the agency is also planning additional security measures after the tournament.
“We will be setting up a program to add additional off duty officers, post World Cup, while we continue to recruit and hire permanent MARTA law enforcement officers,” Hunt said.
MARTA Police Chief Scott Kreher said local, state and federal agencies have been involved in security planning for more than a year.
“State, local, and federal partners, the FBI, TSA, GSP, GBI, all are involved in our planning process for the last year, and they are going to be on top of this with us in our joint operations center,” Kreher said.
On match days, officers from neighboring agencies will patrol parking lots at MARTA stations in their jurisdictions, allowing MARTA officers to focus on stations and routes expected to see the highest volume of visitors.
“What they’ll do is they’ll be assigned to the stations that are in their jurisdiction and that will free up more of our police officers to make sure that we’re on the trains and in the stations in the center of the city that are going to be impacted mostly by most of the traffic,” Kreher said.
Hunt said there are limits to how many officers can be deployed across the system.
“It is just as unreasonable and unaffordable to expect 24/7 law enforcement officer presence by MARTA on the approximately 580 vehicles we deploy daily in all 38 rail stations, in all of our bus center modules,” Hunt said.
MARTA officials say they are also working on plans to increase recruitment of new officers after the World Cup.
WSB Radio’s Jonathan O’Brien contributed to this story.
