The frightened A Line light-rail passenger didn’t utter a word.
While riding the train between the Washington and Firestone stations in South Los Angeles, the young woman showed LA Metro Ambassador Shaani McNeil a message on her phone that read, “I believe a man is following me and I need help.”
McNeil took out her work phone and typed a response: “Where are you going?’
The two continued the silent conversation, avoiding any appearance that the woman had sought help — to avoid tipping off the man lurking behind her. Instead, as the train stopped, McNeil and a co-worker escorted the passenger to the Firestone Station exit, where she had typed on her phone that her father would be waiting.
“She was a student. And yes, her dad was there,” said McNeil, 40. “I wasn’t scared. My only concern was her safety,” she recalled during an interview on June 5.
Between October 2022 and April 2024, Ambassadors helped more than 1 million people, dialed 911 about 1,000 times and recorded safety-related incidents on the Metro Transit Watch app 3,700 times. They’ve saved 215 lives, using Narcan 166 times to revive passengers dying of opioid overdoses and using CPR or suicide intervention techniques to save 49 others, Metro reported last week.
After nearly two years, Metro is seeking to make the program permanent. While these workers are currently contract employees, Metro is pursuing a plan to turn the ambassadors into Metro employees with Metro benefits. “We are working on a plan to transfer the program in-house,” said Karen Parks Sr., director of special projects for LA Metro.
A day in the life of the 346 LA Metro Ambassadors can go from defusing a tense atmosphere like the one on the A-Line train, to reviving a drug addict with the nasal spray Narcan, to talking someone out of taking their own life, to giving tourists directions to the beach.
“When people get close to the edge of the platform, the ambassadors engage them and seek help for them,” explained…
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