To protect Milwaukie residents and others who would ride light rail into Clackamas County, TriMet needs to hire about 160 law enforcement officers, paying for them with increased fares, the Milwaukie police chief told TriMet officials last week.

During a meeting last week in Milwaukie about safety and security on the light rail, Chief Larry Kanzler described TriMet's current security system as inadequate and in need of dramatic change.

"You need to rethink this whole thing because it's not going to get better," he said after reading a letter he had written to TriMet officials. "It's going to get worse" as more riders use light rail.

Milwaukie mayor Jim Bernard supported the police chief's position, urging TriMet to get its crime-fighting plan together as soon as possible.

TriMet plans to roll light rail into Milwaukie by 2015. Another line under construction will bring light rail to Clackamas Town Center in 2009.

The agency has been under fire throughout the Portland area since November, when someone beat a 71-year-old man on a Gresham MAX platform the day after Gresham's mayor complained that the agency had pooh-poohed his crime concerns.