Metro failed to respond to a rider who filed a report on its newly touted sexual misconduct hotline, blaming the error on a “technical glitch.”
The woman emailed the transit agency on its new anti-harassment account on April 11 but had not received a response for nine days, until The Washington Examiner started asking about the delay.
“What happens to a person that has a serious problem?” asked the woman, who asked not to be identified. “It would be too late for them.”
| Report sexual misconduct on Metro |
| To report an incident, contact 202-962-2121 or [email protected], or visit wmata.com/harassment. |
Metro spokeswoman Caroline Lukas said the agency was trying to reach out to the woman after learning her report had initially been ignored.
The agency has pledged to follow up on all complaints within 24 hours, Lukas said. It was not immediately clear whether any other reports have been ignored. “This is the first I’m hearing of anybody not getting a reply,” she said.
She could not explain what the technical glitch was that prevented a prompt response, though.
The agency created the special email account — [email protected] — and Web portal in early March for riders to file reports of harassment on the system after receiving flak for not taking complaints about groping, flashers, verbal harassment and even assaults seriously.
Riders had testified at a D.C. Council hearing this year that Metro employees dismissed their complaints, laughing at them, or were the ones actually harassing the riders.
The agency’s new program directs riders’ reports straight to the inboxes of the top brass in the police department, including the police chief, instead of through normal customer relations channels. Metro officials have said they hope to use the reports to stop the attackers and harassers, but also to isolate patterns and trends. The agency also said it will track and report the statistics for all types of sexual misconduct in its crime reports.
Since the creation of the reporting tools, the agency has received 32 reports, including the missed one, Lukas said. Eighteen of the complaints would qualify as criminal misdemeanors such as indecent exposure, she said, while 14 calls are classified as harassment that doesn’t get to the level of a criminal act.
No arrests or criminal charges have been filed, Lukas said.
That many complaints in less than two months puts the agency on pace to get more than in the past. In all of 2011, the agency had about 80 reports of sexual misconduct, ranging from indecent exposure to rape. That’s an average of about seven cases a month.
