MARTA is establishing its own escort service to ensure patrons get home safely.
Transit authority police will provide an officer to wait with a lone customer at bus stops and walk or drive female patrons home, according to Channel 2 Action News. On Thursday, officers handed out safety literature and whistles at MARTA stations.
The assistance follows three sexual assaults on MARTA property in four months, Chief Wanda Dunham told Channel 2. Arrests have been made in all three attacks, the latest involving Deangelo Bryant, who is accused of assaulting a woman at the Kensington rail station Sept. 24 in DeKalb County.
Bryant, 18, of Atlanta, was booked into the DeKalb jail Monday on rape, kidnapping and assault with a deadly weapon charges.
An attack also has been reported at the Indian Creek station in DeKalb and at the North Avenue station in Atlanta.
Dunham encouraged women to text MARTA police if they feel unsafe walking home and need someone to meet them at a station or if they are alone at night waiting at a bus stop.
Meanwhile, the whistle should be used to create a safe zone, Dunham said.
“If you’re ever coming home late at night and you feel unsafe just blow that whistle. Just keep it on your wrist,” Dunham. “Anybody deserves to be able to ride, walk, traverse any area without the fear of being attacked.”
Customers can use the MARTA app or a station courtesy phone to call officers for an escort within a 5-mile radius,
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