Police make a difference on MAX

Riders express gratitude for officers on trains

By Mara Stine

The Gresham Outlook, Nov 27, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (23 Reader comments)

John Klicker / The Outlook

Gresham Police Officer Lee Graham checks a MAX rider’s pass near the Gresham City Hall platform on Friday, Nov. 23.

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What timing.

Just one day after Gresham Mayor Shane T. Bemis announced that police would begin patrolling MAX trains rolling through the city, a 15-year-old boy armed with a baseball bat clubbed an elderly Sandy man at a local station.

As Laurie Chilcote, 71, of Sandy recovered from extensive head injuries at a Portland hospital, Gresham police on Wednesday, Nov. 7, took to the trains.

Chilcote has since been in and out of the hospital. Meanwhile Gresham police are in their fourth week of train patrols in hopes of healing what has become a broken, battered mode of mass transit.

Sure, dealing with drunks and punks isn’t glamorous, but for officers assigned to the mission, it’s a chance to get out of their patrol cars and do some proactive police work, says Officer Lee Graham, who with Officer Chuck Skeahan patrolled the Blue Line’s east end on a blustery Friday afternoon.

Passenger reaction to their presence has been positive.

About 30 riders have e-mailed or written letters of thanks to Bemis. Another 20 to 30 called, all overwhelmingly in support of the crackdown.

Sometimes the gratitude catches officers off guard. Riders literally reach out and grab them to express thanks.

“It’s a really nice feeling,” Graham says, adding that many are relieved when they step on a train and start talking to belligerent drunks and surly teens. “People are pretty happy when we drag them off the train.”

“We’ve actually seen people clap,” Skeahan adds.

Gresham resident Lori Bird, her head buried in a newspaper, is one such thankful MAX passenger.

“I feel more secure,” she says. “I feel like I can actually read the paper in ease without having to look over my shoulder to see if someone is gonna club me or something.”

Although TriMet has hired 15 more security officers, bringing the total number of yellow-jacket-clad Wackenhut guards to 36, they have no authority to check fares, exclude passengers or make arrests.

“All they’re good for is presence,” Skeahan said. “And it’s just not enough.”

The city isn’t disclosing how many officers it has patrolling the trains or how long such patrols will continue.

Graham hopes it’s for as long as they keep finding passengers with warrants and free-riding gang members.

“They’re there for no other purpose but to go out and sell drugs in Northeast and North Portland,” Graham says.

Homeless passengers, who’ve adopted MAX as a sort of mobile shelter, are another problem because they’re often drunk and urinate at the stations.

“Strangely enough, you can’t pee on the platform,” Skeanhan adds wryly, although judging from the odor at 197th and Burnside you’d never know it.

Teens use platforms as playgrounds, sometimes harassing passengers with vulgar language and a generally obnoxious demeanor.

“TriMet has all kinds of rules,” Skeanhan says. But many – such as no swearing, loitering or smoking on platforms – are not enforced.

Gresham police are changing that.

And as word of Gresham’s enforcement effort fades, Graham says he expects they’ll make even more arrests, seize more drugs and confiscate more weapons. For now, it’s mostly pocketknives.

Plus, officers work with the department’s undercover Neighborhood Crimes Unit, which about a week ago busted a drug ring transporting heroin and cocaine via the MAX to a Rockwood apartment, Graham says.

“So not only are we being visible, but we’ve got undercover officers doing their business, too,” he adds.

Checking fares

But most of their time, about 90 percent, is spent dealing with passengers who don’t pay their fares.

After boarding a train at about 2 p.m. Friday, Nov. 23, the two officers start checking fares at opposite ends and work toward each other.

Anyone without one gets off at the next stop, where officers issue them an exclusion notice: The passenger has an 11-day period during which they can appeal the notice, after which they’re banned from all TriMet property – MAX trains, buses, platforms, even with a fare – for 30 to 90 days.

During one particularly harried night, Graham recalls boarding a train and making the following announcement: It’s late and we’re tired, so raise your hand if you don’t have a fare.

“And a whole section of people raised their hands,” he says.

On Friday, the two officers round up three fare-less passengers and issue them exclusions at the 197th Avenue platform.

“Don’t I get a warning?” asks Dennis Brown, 24, of Vancouver. “It was my first time.”

Graham doesn’t miss a beat.

“Yeah right,” he says and hands him the paperwork.

Brown buys a ticket to get back on the train, then approaches Graham with his fare.

“How do I validate it?” he asks, puzzled.

Graham looks at him with amusement. “It already is,” he says.

The implication goes unsaid: This guy would know that if he’d ever bought a ticket before.

Back on the westbound train, Graham and Skeahan round up five free-riding young men, all of whom get off with the officers at 172nd Avenue. Two seem harmless and chat with the officers, giving the impression that they’ll never do that again.

But one man distances himself. He’s with a woman carrying a crying toddler.

Graham runs his record to check for warrants or prior exclusions.

Bingo.

Derek Conley, 24, of North Portland has already been excluded for non-payment effective Wednesday, Nov. 21. And he’s on parole for being an ex-con in possession of a weapon.

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