Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department
Game Theory and ILP in Transit Policing: From Analog to Digital
Sullivan JP; Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department
jpsulliv@lasd.org

Abstract: Policing urban mass transit systems (bus and rail) requires an
understanding of threats, vulnerability, and criticality (impact) on the system and
people. A range of hazards can potentially cause harm. These include crime,
disorder, and terrorism. We are currently testing game theoretic modeling of a
range of actors (police, transit personnel, passengers, and criminals) on the
transit system. Balancing security, accessibility and legal concerns/liberty
interests are key issues. Collaborative research between the University of
Southern California, Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events
(CREATE) and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, Transit Services
Bureau (TSB) on the Los Angeles Metro system toward randomization and
optimization of Intelligence-Led Policing (ILP): dynamic deployment and analysis
for fare enforcement, disorder, crime, and terrorism will be highlighted.




METRO operates the third largest public
transportation system in the US by ridership
with a 1,433 sq. mi (3,711 km2) operating area
2,000 peak hour buses on the street any
given business day
Metro also designed, built and now operates
79.1 miles (127.3 km) of urban rail service
The MTA has 9,200 employees



Fare Enforcement
Serious Crime
Terrorism
 Intelligence-Led Policing (ILP)



Must Balance Access, Ease of Mobility with
Security and civil liberties
Large Complex terrain and population
Randomize and Optimize
Deployments/Interventions

ARMOR-TRUSTS (Assistant for Randomized
Monitoring Over Routes- Tactical Randomization for
Security in Transit Systems)
 Pilot project with USC (CREATE)
 Randomization of fare operations, directed patrol and
special mission unit deployments; i.e. passenger screening
& surge staffing
 Uses game theory advanced quantitative statistics
(econometrics)
 Requires immersion of researchers and practitioner
participation in practical field tests
Fare Evasion as baseline
 Developed schedules and then Smartphone app
for dynamic deployment
 Counterterrorism: surge staffing

 10 NAIs on Metro
 Cover for national & regional threat
 25% & 50% respectively
 Resource typed SMUs
 TTX & FSE to test deployment

Crime (hotspots/ILP) next




Move from analog to digital
Distributed apps for Intelligence-Led Policing
and Intelligence Preparation for Operations
Edge devices for all (smartphones/tablets)
“App of Apps”
Questions?
Lieutenant John P. Sullivan
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department
Homeland Security Division
Transit Services Bureau Headquarters
(323) 997-1089
jpsulliv@lasd.org

Edge devices:
 Need to work on surface and in subway
 Requires Wireless Connectivity
 Must communicate with Metro and multiple
public safety agencies (including all TSB and
LASD)
 Must provide reliable dynamic deployment and
mission planning capability
 Must be scalable