King County Metro ends shuttle service for Seattle Police Dept.

King County Metro has had a long-standing agreement with law enforcement that if they asked for help, Metro would assist.

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Metro would allow off-duty coaches to shuttle officers to where they needed to go. This practice was rare. It was usually set up for large, planned events like the Women’s March or for Seafair. Metro would also shuttle police officers in emergencies when police needed to move a lot of people at once.

After watching the police responses to recent protests, King County Metro has ended that agreement. If law enforcement needs a bus to move people, it will have to go through the office of emergency management, not Metro directly.

“We are no longer providing direct support to law enforcement to transport them for any circumstances, including peaceful demonstrations and marches,” Metro GM Rob Gannon said during a Skype call Thursday about service cuts. “We had an established practice of supporting law enforcement generally when they needed to move into locations to serve public interests but we have stopped that practice and we are adjusting our policy now to make that clear and certain that it will not happen in the future.”

Meanwhile, Metro says it will make cuts and suspensions to routes in September. Services will be about 85% of pre-COVID levels. A list of affected routes is available here.

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