Managers of small- and medium-sized transit systems considering enhancements to or establishment of formal security programs want to know the following: (1) Are my peers doing formal security needs assessments? (2) What practical security measures are in use? (3) What practical security measures are recommended? (4) How does one set a security budget? (5) How does one justify a security budget? In the research effort led by Countermeasures Assessment & Security Experts, LLC, 180 small- and medium-sized public transit agencies from across the United States were surveyed about their assets, identified and historic security risks, as well as physical and operational countermeasures. Questions about assets included size of fleet by mode, physical structures (e.g., office buildings, maintenance garages), infrastructure (e.g., bridges, tunnels), and security personnel. For comparative purposes, 106 large agencies were also surveyed. Risk questions pertained to the incidence of homeland security-related events, felony and misdemeanour crimes, and quality of life offenses committed within the past year. Agencies were also asked to report on incidents of suspicious activity, packages, or persons, bomb threats, and evacuations based on these suspicious circumstances. In terms of countermeasures, agencies were asked about access control, barriers, berms, surveillance equipment, security public awareness campaigns, and security planning. The research conducted supports an initial hypothesis that there are significant differences between the security risks, needs, and issues facing smaller agencies when compared to those of large metropolitan transit systems; police and security problems at small- and medium-sized systems occur with much less frequency or magnitude of severity. A survey of large, medium, and small transit agencies disclosed that the smaller the system, the less probable it is for the agency to experience significant levels of crime or disorder. Homeland security- or terrorism-related threats rarely occur on smaller systems. However, the potential for serious crime and major security events always exists, even for these smaller systems. Irrespective of the size of the agency, transit security problems fall into the following categories: (1) passenger security, (2) employee security, (3) revenue security, (4) transit equipment and property protection, (5) fraud, and (6) homeland security-related threats and vulnerabilities. The highest consequence security issue that small- and medium-sized transit agencies must confront on a daily basis is the potential for employees to be assaulted while performing their duties. Although lesser crimes or violations may occur more frequently, by and large the most significant criminal threat outside of homicide that the transit agency will face is as an aggravated assault committed against an employee. This project created two products that are available on the TRB website (http://www.TRB.org) by searching for “TCRP Report 180”: (1) this report, and (2) a PowerPoint presentation describing the entire project. (Author/publisher)
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