RR-2026-CATS 2.0
Charlotte Area Transit System - Rapid Response Special Report
- CATS has no physical structures (e.g., turnstiles or gates) in place to deter entry by non-ticketed individuals. CATS also lacks adequate procedures and policies to address fare evasion by riders or to enforce the collection of fines arising from fare citations, resulting in the loss of between $5 and 6.5 million in revenue per year.
- The limited interactions between CATS and CMPD have been largely inefficient. For example, only two CMPD officers are currently assigned to CATS’s Metro Transit Unit; at the time of Iryna Zarutska’s murder, there was no direct connection between CMPD’s Real Time Crime Center and CATS’s surveillance camera systems; and CMPD does not appear to assist CATS in enforcing the transit system’s Exclusion List.
- To frame its system risk assessment, CATS uses U.S. Department of Defense guidelines for assessing operational risks associated with defense systems, rather than the guidelines established by the Federal Transit Authority (FTA) for municipal transit systems.
- CATS’s “Multi-Year Safety and Security Equipment Plan” was not executed in a timely fashion and did not fully utilize the transit system’s fiscal year (FY) 2025 budget.
First Published