L.A. County District Attorney George Gascon hit back against Union Pacific criticism on Friday afternoon, Jan. 21, writing in a letter to the railroad that the company doesn’t do enough to ensure its trains are adequately locked and protected.
The letter, addressed to Union Pacific General Director of Public Affairs Adrian Guerrero, came a week after one a train derailed in downtown Los Angeles. The tracks where the derailment happened were littered with ravaged shipping boxes, revealing that Union Pacific has been the victim of increasing train thefts for about a year. In a Sunday, Jan. 16, public letter addressed to Gascon, Guerrero said Union Pacific had seen a 160% increase in thefts since December 2020, yet another blow to an already beleaguered supply chain.
Guerrero also criticized Gascon, saying that his diversion policies — including dismissing certain misdemeanors, including trespassing — has resulted in the spike in thefts.
Gascon’s letter rebuffed that criticism, saying the Los Angeles Police Department has determined that “UP does little to secure or lock trains and has significantly decreased law enforcement staffing.”
“It is very telling,” Gascon added, “that other major railroad operations in the area are not facing the same level of theft at their facilities as UP.”
The LAPD could not immediately be reached for comment.
The railroad, through the public relations consulting company Hill+Knowlton Strategies, challenged Gascon’s charge.
“We brought in dozens of Union Pacific special agents from across our 23-state-network during the peak season months of 2021,” Caroline Curran of HK Strategies wrote in an email late Friday. “We continued to keep that increased presence in LA over the last several months.”
The sparring follows an upsurge in cargo theft from trains moving through downtown Los Angeles from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Thieves have littered the tracks with boxes pulled from the containers on the trains.
The railroad has complained that Gascon has not been assertive enough in filing and pursuing charges in the thefts that the railway says have been a growing problem.
“To be clear,” Gascon responded, “felony and misdemeanor cases are filed where our office is presented with enough evidence to prove that a crime was committed.”
Gascon’s letter came a day after Gov. Gavin Newsom visited the tracks and helped clean up trash. He also announced an expansion to an anti-retail theft task force.
This story is breaking and will be updated.