MTA police contract up

Competition for the $62.5 million annual contract to police the city's mass transit system is heating up among some law enforcement agencies, months before bidding wars begin. Sue Doyle in the Daily News.

Metro's five-year agreement with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department will expire June 30, 2008, and officials do not yet know if they will renew it. The transit agency is reviewing other security options that could dismantle the sheriff's grip on the mass transit system and save about $4.7 million.

Roger Snoble, Metro's chief executive officer, said at a recent workshop that the security-program review should not be considered a criticism of the Sheriff's Department and its staff assigned to the transit agency.