Charlotte leaders announce transit safety changes; FOP calls for National Guard

CHARLOTTE — Mayor Vi Lyles and city leaders on Friday unveiled new safety measures for Charlotte’s transit system, while the Fraternal Order of Police called for the National Guard to help address rising violent crime in the city.

This comes in response to the deadly attack on Iryna Zarutska Aug. 22 on the Charlotte Area Transit System Blue Line light rail.

Zarutska was a Ukrainian refugee seeking a safer life in Charlotte.

Decarlos Brown, her alleged killer, rode a CATS bus without a ticket before getting on the Blue Line and stabbing her to death, investigators said.

>>CLICK HERE for complete coverage of the light rail stabbing

There have been calls for increased security from the local to the federal level since then.

Off-duty officers on patrol

One of the city’s solutions to secure the light rail is to offer 966 hours of off-duty shifts per week so CMPD officers could make extra money patrolling the transit system.

Channel 9’s Hunter Sáenz asked city manager Marcus Jones how many of those shifts have been filled.

“My understanding is that all of those slots have been subscribed,” Jones said.

However, multiple sources told Sáenz it’s been a struggle to get officers to sign up, partly because they are not getting paid through their city paychecks.

Instead, they’re paid through a system called Power Detail, which means the overtime or extra pay doesn’t count toward the pay that determines their future pensions.

“They are being paid through CATS and not through the city’s general fund, just like an off-duty for another entity,” Jones said.

Sáenz asked if the city is trying to save money over keeping the community safe.

“No, not at all,” Jones said. “Again, my understanding is that this has been subscribed to, maybe even over-subscribed, but let’s just say that I have not heard, up to this point, that there has been an issue with the off-duty officers filling the slots that CATS has made available.”

However, internal CMPD emails Sáenz obtained show that’s not the case.

On Tuesday, all sworn officers received an email titled: “CATS light rail off-duty $80/hr officers and $85/hour supervisors.”

The first line read, “Still over 100 openings over the next few weeks for this job. Please sign up if available.”

Councilman Ed Driggs, R-District 7, said the off-duty work for CMPD officers does not legally count as overtime, because they are not doing the additional work while technically on the clock at CMPD.

They would still be in uniform and in marked CMPD cars.

National Guard request

Also on Friday, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Fraternal Order of Police said in a letter that it plans to ask federal, state, and city leaders to authorize the National Guard to respond to violent crime in Charlotte.

The FOP said crime is up since Zarutska’s killing six weeks ago.

The organization pointed out there have been 15 homicides since Zarutska was stabbed to death on the light rail.

The FOP said current crime-fighting strategies and strained staffing are unsustainable and the National Guard is needed.

“We believe the time has come to formally request their assistance to relieve pressure on our rank-and-file members before more of our citizens die and our officers get hurt,” the FOP said in a letter.

The mayor disagreed.

“I believe in Charlotte, first and foremost,” Lyles said. “I believe that we have the ability in this community, the number of people that are engaged now to make this a safer city, is from every part of our community.”

A spokesperson for CMPD declined to comment on the FOP’s request.

Stein did not respond to a request for comment.

Immediate changes to safety

Officials at the news conference in east Charlotte talked about the changes transit riders will see immediately.

Following the recent council vote to expand the jurisdiction of CATS’ security provider to include the entirety of the rail trail, leaders explained how they plan to add new security vehicles, including bikes and UTVs, to be able to get up and down the Blue Line more effectively.

Lyles also said she will be proposing a new policy at the next Metropolotin Transit Commission meeting that will make fare enforcement more of a priority on the trains. She did not provide any details about what that will look like.

Lyles touched on why it is so important for her to make these safety changes.

“I have lived in this city since I was in college, and I understand what it means to be safe,” she said. “I want my grandchildren to grow up and be a part of this city, which means we have to change to make that possible for them and the next generation.”

‘Iryna’s Law’

Gov. Josh Stein, also on Friday, enacted Iryna’s Law with only hours before its deadline, which would’ve made it automatically go into effect.

In a video statement from Raleigh, Stein said it came down to one simple question.

“When I review public safety legislation that comes to my desk, I use one simple test. ‘Does it make people safer?’” he said.

Stein went on to say he was not in full support of Iryna’s Law, which eliminates cashless bail and brings 10 more assistant district attorneys to Mecklenburg County.

Iryna’s Law (House Bill 307) also requires judicial officials to review a defendant’s criminal history before setting conditions of release.

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