By Bruce Checefsky

A version of this article first appeared in the Plain Press.

In 2017, two transit police officers boarded a HealthLine bus and demanded passengers show proof of payment. When Ronnie Williams could not produce a fare card, he was removed from the bus and issued a citation for fare evasion, a fourth-degree misdemeanor.

In Ohio, misdemeanors of the fourth degree are met with a maximum jail sentence of 30 days and a fine not to exceed $250. A misdemeanor conviction can stay on your record unless a petition is filed for an expungement to get the information removed.

Williams pled not guilty to the misconduct charge and elected a trial. On October 26, 2017, Cleveland municipal court Judge Emanuella Groves found the RTA fare enforcement unconstitutional. “Fare enforcement policies encourage law enforcement officers to perform investigatory passenger stops without possessing reasonable, articulable facts that passengers have committed a criminal offense,” the judge wrote in her decision. “RTA police officers are decorated with the color of law, and therefore, prohibited from such conduct under the Fourth Amendment. RTA’s fair enforcement policy encourages arbitrary and abusive police practices.”

Despite the court ruling, RTA has continued issuing citations, with transit police handing out more than 772 citations since 2017, according to RTA Traffic Summary Reports, with over 90% at Public Square and Tower City.

“Fare evasion is a small portion of the RTA budget,” said William H. Nix, President of Amalgamated Transit Union Local (ATU) 268, Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority. “Fares help ensure that people on the busses and trains use it for transportation rather than a free place to sleep. It is also a safety issue, as confronting the public about fares can lead to assaults. There does need to be a stronger presence by the transit police or, perhaps, the new ambassador program the RTA is supposed to try to help, not only for fares but also safety and customer service.”

India Birdsong, General Manager and CEO of the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority, discussed the future of the Cleveland public transit system at The City Club of Cleveland recently in February (2022). Chris Martin, a member of the grassroots transit advocacy organization Clevelanders for Public Transit (CPT) and an RTA rider, asked whether the RTA ambassador program will hire unarmed civilians and social workers trained in crisis prevention to engage in fare enforcement.

“Our transit police division is drafting the transit ambassador program,” Birdsong said. “We do not want to replace the police fare enforcement with the ambassadors. We want the ambassadors to assist riders with transit to become more comfortable with it. We are also looking at gaps in our current systems and upgrading technology to reduce fare evasion.”

In 2019, Ward 3 Councilman Kerry McCormack prepared legislation to decriminalize fare evasion but never introduced the legislation to City Council.

Martin said policing on American transit consistently discriminates against Black and Brown riders. At a recent CPT meeting Bob Ross, a Cleveland resident, said transit riders want to feel safe.

“People want to use public transit. They also want to feel safe,” said Ross. “I am very opposed to the police versus an ambassador program based on my experiences. Will people feel safer with ambassadors instead of transit police?”

Chris Martin suggested the Bay Area Rapid Transit, a rapid transit system serving the San Francisco Bay Area, as a model policing program for Cleveland. The BART Police Department launched the Ambassador Pilot Program in 2020. The pilot program won an Award for Innovation in Public Safety for its efforts.