FIELD OPERATIONS

The Field Operations division provides proactive and reactive protection of METRO's patrons, employees, and property within the 1,285 square-mile METRO service area. Patrol officers are responsible for conducting preliminary investigations, responding to emergencies, uniformed and plain clothes police patrols, criminal intelligence, enforcing all State laws, and investigating accidents.

METRO police officers are entrusted to enforce federal and state laws as well as municipal ordinances within the department’s jurisdictional boundaries (Harris County and portions of Fort Bend, Montgomery and Waller Counties). Although METRO police officers are empowered to enforce all applicable laws within their jurisdictional confines, listed below are several laws specific to public transit that are routinely enforced by METRO police officers:

• HOV occupancy violations;
• Smoking in a covered or enclosed public ground transportation facility;
• Eating or drinking on a METRO bus;
• Depositing trash on a METRO bus;
• The theft or vandalism of METRO property;
• Playing any loud audio device while on a METRO bus or light rail vehicle;
• Fare evasion on the METRORail system or on METRO buses;
• Consumption of alcoholic beverages in METRO’s bus shelters;
• HOT lane enforcement (to be enacted in near future); and
• Smoking in a METRO bus or METRORail train.