By David Wilfong, NDG Special Correspondent
Some DART riders on their way to work Tuesday afternoon were surprised when police officers from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) boarded their trains, blocking the exits, and ran K9 dogs through the trains. While impressive at first sight, Mark A. Ball of the DART media office said this was a rather routine occurrence in Dallas.
“We live in a very unique part of the country,” Ball said. “The federal government loves Dallas.”
Ball explained the DART system in Dallas gives visiting law enforcement officers access to several different types of public transportation all in a very focused geographic area. DHS officers are able to familiarize themselves with light rail on the DART lines, which connect to both the TRE and Amtrak for examples of larger trains. Now DART even has a streetcar which stops at Union Station along with the other two. Then there are the different types of buses, and the fact that those buses run them to both a large and medium-sized airport (DFW and Love Field).
“The presence of Department of Homeland Security police officers on any DART properties provokes unease among some passengers, but their presence is legitimate for training purposes,” Ball said. “The DHS officers are part of a Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response (VIPR) team training and working with DART police to help ensure security on public trains and buses. The VIPR officers do not engage in any enforcement actions and have worked with the department for more than a decade.”
He said that DHS runs these exercises at least three or four times a year bringing in officers from around the country.
“Sometimes there are undercover FBI agents on there too,” Ball added. “There are always law enforcement from all over the country in Dallas. In fact, when we had the St. Patrick’s Day parade, a number of the volunteering police officers were actually Department of Homeland Security.”
So riders on DART trains should not be immediately alarmed if they encounter a large group of DHS officers, or any other agency, on the light rail here in Dallas. The city has become a favorite stop for officers who will have to deal with a wide array of transportation infrastructure around the country.
