The City Council passed a resolution last Wednesday urging Governor McGreevey and the state legislature to mandate that NJ Transit be responsible for providing security in all light rail stations during hours of operation.
After concerns were raised last year, Police Chief Ron Buonocore has increased the City’s police presence on the on the city’s light rail system.
“When the light rail was introduced, NJ Transit should have been responsible for policing it,” said Police Department Public Information Officer Edgar Martinez. “But since it’s in Jersey City, Mayor [Glenn] Cunningham and Chief Buonocore said that we have to protect our citizens who use the light rail system.”
In October, the chief implemented a plan assigning two police officers for each district, one plainclothes and one uniformed. Each district has four to five stops. The plainclothes and uniformed officers will alternately ride the train and patrol the stations.
“We have enough police officers on the light rail system so that we can jump into action if there is any crime committed on the system,” said Martinez. “The chief wants to insure that the residents who use the light rail system feel safe riding it through the city.”
Jurisdiction questions
Concerns were raised at Monday’s caucus meeting about jurisdiction, based on the fact that the trains travel between towns.
There is the issue of who responds if there is an incident on Hoboken tracks, when the train stops at the Jersey City station, said Councilperson William Gaughan.
Martinez said that light rail jurisdiction operates in a similar manner to a car chase that crosses borders.
“If there is an incident on the train on the Bayonne border, both Jersey City and Bayonne would respond and depending on the actual location of the incident, that police department would finally handle it,” said Martinez. “Let’s say an incident happened in Bayonne, but the train stops in Jersey City. The Jersey City police would come in, but Bayonne would process it.”
Local police have powers throughout the whole state, said Martinez, adding that it is routine for Jersey City to patrol state controlled transportation routes.
“It’s just like the Port Authority and the Holland Tunnel,” he said. “We work together. You build partnerships to cross jurisdictional lines.”
Who should bear the cost?
While Buonocore prefers to have his men on the job, other officials raised concerns about the security being paid for out of the city’s tax levy.
“The mayor definitely supports that resolution. He thinks the council is on the right track with that,” said Stan Eason, Cunningham’s Director of Communications. “We provide coverage which is supposedly supplementary to what NJ transit is responsible for doing. They have transit police, so when we put our police out there we’re doing their job.”
Councilperson Viola Richardson urged the mayor to help solicit more support from NJ Transit.
“I think that with our mayor being a senator,” she said. “we have an opportunity to have this addressed.”
NJ Transit representatives did not return calls at press time.