MARTA's "Blow the Whistle on Sexual Assault"

Feb. 9, 2016
The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) Police Department recently started a “Blow the Whistle on Sexual Assault” campaign.

 The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) Police Department recently started a “Blow the Whistle on Sexual Assault” campaign. It kicked off October 7, 2015 and has a three-phased approach.

There’s not a huge amount of sexual assaults on MARTA, with only three in 2015. However, said Chief Wanda Dunham, “To me, being a female, I think even one is too many.” She continued, “I wanted to lend out my voice to this initiative because I think for some folks, even though we’re happy with that, that they feel comfortable on MARTA, sometimes they get a little comfortable and we wanted to bring this initiative out.”

Phase 1: Handing out whistles

Dunham said they purchased about 7,000 whistles and began passing those out to their customers and to the community. Customers appreciated MARTA was willing to have a program to protect them and look out for their safety and it garnered a slew of media coverage.

Initially they started out with handing whistles out during rush hour at designated stations. “You would be surprised people were so excited about getting a free whistle,” said Dunham.

Phase 2: Courtesy rides

The second part of the safety campaign was providing courtesy rides. “This was a little challenging for our bosses,” explained Dunham, “because they were like, ‘hmmm, you know we’re not Uber, right?’

MARTA closes at 2 a.m. and this program is more than something for the person who’s bus has left. Dunham said it’s for the person standing alone on the platform at Midnight, or waiting for a bus and there’s nobody else around, and may not feel safe.

If they don’t feel safe, they can pick up a white or blue phone, or use the app and text you don’t feel safe, someone can come by and stand with that person or, if the person lives within a five-mile radius of a station, MARTA will take them home.

There were many concerns with such a program. Can we afford this? Will people abuse this?

Dunham stated, “They haven’t. They really, really have not.

“People have taken us up on our offer. To date we’ve given 194 courtesy rides, mostly between Midnight and 2 a.m.”

And, she stressed, it’s been the folks that really need it. The ones that have taken them up on the offer can’t stop thanking them enough, Dunham said.

“It’s mostly on the weekends, is what the trend is. We’ve found it’s mostly airport workers and folks who work for downtown … got out late and missed the train or bus.”

Phase 3: Self-defense class

The final piece of the program is free self-defense classes in every jurisdiction that MARTA operates in. In December they held the final class of 2015 and they had reached that goal.

They’ve also given three classes to front-line employees, including station agents, cleaners and revenue agents. “They’re out there by themselves, too,” said Dunham.

“To date we’ve reached about 580 people. We’re excited about that.

“People are now calling us and we have several schedules for next year already.”