Originally Posted by QUERY

In Milwaukee, I've personally seen several incidents aboard Milwaukee County Transit System's buses and I'm glad that they have a reporting system in place. Sheriff's deputies have jurisdiction on these buses but they also employ Wackenhut private security. The former are used in cases where violence or the threat of violence has occurred and the latter for incidents where violence has not occurred and they occasionally ride along as a visible deterrent. More importantly, the private security personnel are not law enforcement and don't carry guns. The buses also have overhead surveillance cameras(eyes in the sky).

In one incident, I walked right into the middle of it. It was at night, the bus was packed when I got on, and everyone looked very tense. Every seat was taken except for this one in which this male was like sitting sideways taking up both seats. I stood in back and things were unusually quiet. We stopped a little further up ahead and Sheriff's deputies boarded talking with the bus driver who pointed out the male sitting sideways. From what I learned, this male had made death threats against a group of young women traveling together. What the idiot did not realize is that they had called 911(probably pretending it was one of their friends and talking softly) and the bus driver probably alerted the Sheriff's Office as well. They escorted the male off the bus, pulled the surveillance tape from its locked storage area, and then made all of us get off and get on another bus. My guess is they were treating the original bus as a crime scene.

In a second incident, this male was at the back of the bus and he was bad mouthing the driver. I walked into the middle of this one as well and this guy would not shut his mouth no matter how many times the bus driver ASKED him politely to do so. A little ahead, we stopped and Wackenhut security personnel entered, escorting the male off the bus. As we pulled away, they were still talking with him. Since there were no Sheriff's deputies around, I doubt that this guy was arrested. Had he resisted, that would have been another matter.

IMO, it is a reasonable initiative for school bus drivers. It's a reporting mechanism only. There are domestic terrorists out there as well as foreign terrorists. With our record unemployment rate, Federal/State/City cutbacks, and a worsening economy, I think it is a prudent measure.