This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
About 1 of every 36 riders on Utah Transit Authority buses and trains now illegally skips paying fares. So UTA just hired eight part-time "fare inspectors" to help the agency's regular police officers catch more of the scofflaws.
"This is an effort to expand fare inspection at a lower cost," said Dave Goeres, UTA chief safety officer.
He adds that the UTA Board asked for this action last year after it conducted a study on whether to keep its own police agency.
The board concluded then that keeping its own police force was wise and cost-effective, but that it should be supplemented with cheaper, unarmed civilian fare inspectors.
Goeres said eight new inspectors were just hired for 20 hours per week each at an hourly wage of $16.02.
So combined wages for the eight per year would be about $133,000. In comparison, UTA said last year that it costs about $87,000 a year for one fully equipped and trained police officer — who, of course, performs many duties to handle crime beyond enforcing fares.
"The fare inspectors are currently paired up with UTA transit police officers as we get them into the system" for safety reasons, Goeres said. "The goal will be to have [the new inspectors] out in pairs in the very near future."
He adds that UTA studied whether to hire and train its own fare inspectors, or to contract out for the service. The agency "decided to hire them as part-time UTA employees as a more efficient and effective means of implementing the program," Goeres said.
While the primary role of the new inspectors is fare enforcement, Goeres said they "will also provide customer service and help passengers navigate the system. Additionally, they will provide more 'eyes' on the system to 'see something, say something' as they will have communication with our police dispatch to respond to security issues."
Full-time UTA police officers will continue to help at times with fare enforcement, and their duties have not changed. UTA said last year that the UTA police agency has 60 sworn officers, 18 security guards and four administrators, with an annual budget of $6.4 million.
Goeres said UTA's fare non-compliance rate — determined by how many of the people checked by officers are skipping fares — is averaging 2.8 percent so far in 2015, but monthly rates over the past 18 month have ranged between 2.1 and 3.4 percent.
Twitter: @LeeHDavidson