Oklahoma City Adds Security Officers To RAPID Buses

Oklahoma City has pulled $500,000 from its contingency funds to place a security officer on each RAPID bus for 8 hours a day. The extra security follows an increase in ridership, and two high-profile assaults this year on EMBARK drivers.

News 9 obtained emails from city officials through an open records request. In a May 22 email, assistant city manager Jason Ferbrache messaged the city's finance department. “I spoke with [the city manager] Craig a couple of weeks ago about the need to increase security presence on RAPID due to reason I'm happy to explain in person if needed,” he wrote.

According to his plan, a contracted security officer would be added to each RAPID bus, and “as incidents decline” some security officers would be peeled off or sent to fixed routes.

An employee in the finance department responded the same afternoon.

“It sounds like it's needed quickly,” they wrote. “I don't want you to lose drivers or riders for concerns over security.”

Ferbrache's request was between the two major assaults on EMBARK drivers. While those incidents factor in these decisions, he said in an interview with News 9 that increasing security has been a priority since before the assaults.

“For the fiscal year that just concluded in June, we provided 3.4 million passenger trips,” he said. “Any time we are serving more customers, more passengers, more volume — however you want to describe it — the likelihood of incidents, unfortunately, that happen is going to increase.”

Security incidents that EMBARK tracks are not always violent or rise to the level of the assaults caught on camera. For example, verbal threats or trespass are also tracked and tallied in the same pool.

“Just like when somebody travels using an airport or an airline, they expect a certain amount of security,” Ferbrache said. “We want to make sure we have that same level of adequate security.”

EMBARK tracks each security incident in a database and reports it at the federal level. In accordance with federal regulations, the transit agency also maintains a transit safety plan.

The RAPID security officers have been on buses for nearly a month. Evaluating any permanent funding needs would be part of next year's budget-planning process.

EMBARK is also working with transit groups to lobby state leaders for changes to laws regarding attacks on transit workers. SB 1589, which failed to make it out of committee during this year's legislative session, would have strengthened protections for transit workers who are assaulted. 

Ferbrache said he plans to try again during next year's session.