Sacramento Regional Transit shifts $1M to boost security on light rail and buses
The Sacramento Regional Transit board of directors voted Monday to allocate an additional $1 million to boost security on light rail and buses.
The money is being reallocated from existing funds. Although it was unclear exactly how it would be divided, the board voted to send the money to hire 10 more transit ambassadors, add two staffers in the security operations center and security guards who are typically police.
Transit ambassadors collect fares on board, assist with questions and customer service and do most of the work of maintaining a peaceful travel environment on light rail. Workers in the security operations center monitor feeds from more than 2,000 cameras and recover footage of any reported incidents.
For security, officers or deputies are loaned out from local law enforcement agencies. Officer Anthony Gamble, a spokesperson for the Sacramento Police Department, said the agency would not be renewing its contract with RT in January. The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office will fill those positions: currently, 12 full-time employees and one police dog.
Gamble said Sacramento police would continue to respond to calls in the city limits and assist RT authorities as the needs arise.
Crystal McGee Lee, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 256, spoke to the board Tuesday during public comment. RT workers are organized with ATU.
Lee insisted that transit ambassadors, who would total 50 with the additional money, needed a large share of the new funding. An undetermined amount is slated to go toward a “modest” pay raise for these workers, said RT spokesperson Jessica Gonzalez.
The ambassadors’ starting hourly wage is $23.19, Lee said.
“If we take a lot of that money and put it towards police officers,” Lee said, “then we’re doing a disservice to the people who are on the ground floor.”
RT ambassadors getting assaulted, spit on
RT previously released salary data to The Sacramento Bee. Excluding people who worked part-time and made less than $17,000 in regular pay, the data show that transit ambassadors earned an average of $38,027 in regular pay last year. No one, including “lead transit ambassadors,” earned more than $51,300.
Tamica Atterberry Scrivans, a transit ambassador and a member of the union, said transit ambassadors do customer service, they assist operators, they count passengers and sort them into different fare categories, they track bikes and report the people they kick off transit. She said they often have to remain with disturbed and abusive passengers.
“We are often alone 20, 30, 40 minutes with the uncooperatives that we are told to kick off the trains,” she told the board. “They are spitting on us; they are throwing stuff at us; they are throwing food on us; their dogs are barking at us. They are siccing their dogs on us. They are coming at us with knives. I’ve seen machetes, I’ve seen guns.”
“We deserve more money,” she said. “Because a lot of us don’t feel safe.”
A lead transit ambassador, Brandon Gibson, told the board he believed that the solution to problems on the system was to hire more transit ambassadors. He said he had worked at RT for nine years. “We have a high turnover rate,” he said, because of low pay and stressful situations.
“It’s a tough job,” he said. “I’ve been assaulted.”
This story was originally published October 28, 2025 at 4:25 PM.
