CapMetro swears in agency's first police chief

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- CapMetro swore in its first ever police chief for the agency's newly created Transit Police department on Monday morning.

Eric Robins, the 30-year police veteran who served as the chief of police in Sugar Land, Texas, was sworn in alongside Assistant Chief Joseph Rose and Captain Jeremy Benoit during a ceremony at CapMetro's headquarters.

The newly formed department will be part of CapMetro's three-prong public safety approach on its transit. The transit police officers will serve alongside the already existing Public Safety Ambassadors and Intervention Specialists.

Ambassadors help provide support to customers, employees and overall system public safety, while intervention specialists cater more specifically to “outreach with vulnerable populations on the CapMetro system,” per transit authority documents.

Robins made some remarks to an audience about his goals for the department moving forward. He said he wants to make sure he is an inclusive chief.

"I just want to make sure that we have everyone's thoughts -- everyone's input -- in getting and building an effective organization and an effective team," Robins said.

This is the fourth transit police department in the state of Texas, following San Antonio, Dallas, and Houston.

The three-prong approach is there to serve the passengers of CapMetro's transit system, but will also be there to protect employees. Brent Payne, the local president of the Amalgamated Transit Union, said his operators at CapMetro have wanted a transit police department for a "long time."

"With the new transit police department our operators can be focused on their job duty and not worry about their safety," Payne said during the ceremony.

Next steps

Robins will now work to start hiring his officers. Officials have told KXAN that it expects to hire 12 officers in the first year. Robins said he is looking for officers that are people-centric and people-focused.

"What we want to do is make sure we bring in the appropriate officers that's going to be here to join in on our public safety approach with our intervention specialists," Robins explained.

CapMetro is already accepting applications for its new police department on its website.