On Charlotte’s light rail, the math is simple and unforgiving: 48 train cars, 39 armed officers. That shortfall is the product of years of contracting decisions that cut the number of armed posts by more than 40 percent, even as the city spent over $49 million on transit security. The result is a system where riders can’t count on a uniformed officer in their car, and where the promise of safety lags behind the price tag.
Staffing and Contracts: How We Got to 39 Armed Posts
CATS’ armed security shrank by contract, not happenstance. In 2018, G4S provided roughly 108 security personnel, including an armed force in the 68 to 88 range. In 2021, Allied Universal stepped in through assignment as the City used both renewal options to carry the agreement through October 2023.
In July 2022, the replacement procurement split the work: one award for armed services, a separate award for unarmed services restricted to Charlotte Business Inclusion–certified firms. Council approved Strategic Security Corporation for armed services and Professional Police Services for unarmed services in April 2023. In June 2024 the City canceled the armed contract with SSC for performance issues, effective that December, then amended PSS’s contract to take over both unarmed and armed scopes without running a fresh competition for the armed portion.
The current PSS plan authorizes up to 219 security personnel across FY25–FY26. Only 39 are armed positions: six armed guards, 26 company police officers, six sergeants, and one captain. With 48 train cars in the fleet, one-armed-per-car coverage is not possible under this model.
Headcount math
- Prior armed staffing: about 68–88
- Current armed staffing: 39
- Train cars in service: 48
- Result: not enough for one armed post per car
Spending vs. Coverage: $49M and Persistent Gaps
Since 2022, private security contracts for CATS have exceeded $49 million. Even with that spend, staffing lagged. Two weeks after the August 22, 2025 killing of rider Iryna Zarutska on the Lynx Blue Line, CATS reported 186 filled positions out of the 219 approved. A week later, a public committee pressed why riders were not seeing a visible shift on platforms and trains.
The mismatch is simple to describe and hard to ignore. Dollars climbed. Armed coverage fell. Riders noticed.
Jurisdiction After the Homicide: Where PSS Can Patrol Now
Until this fall, PSS company police were limited to City-owned transit property. One month after Zarutska’s murder, Council expanded the jurisdiction to include adjacent areas around transit centers. That change brings footpaths, bus bays, and sidewalks into scope. It does not, by itself, increase the number of armed posts.
What the City Argues—and What Voters Must Decide Next
City officials say splitting the procurement created a path for an MWSBE firm to prime unarmed work and that CATS is advancing a three-part safety plan: rider education, engineering upgrades like fare zones, and enforcement coordination with CMPD. They have asked the state auditor to include their full responses in any revised report.
The choice for voters in 2025 is direct. Mecklenburg County’s one-cent transit sales tax would fund rail and safety investments. The recent record shows how staffing models, procurement design, and oversight can leave gaps even as budgets grow. Any long-term transit plan should tell voters how many trained, armed personnel will be on trains and platforms, how that figure will be maintained, and what accountability applies when contractors miss.
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About the Author
Jack Beckett writes with a notebook in one hand and a coffee the color of motor oil in the other. When the espresso hits, he reads contracts so you don’t have to. Find more reporting at The Charlotte Mercury, skim the latest in News, or go deep on governance in Politics. Special coverage lives at Poll Dance 2025. Tips, praise, latte art, and train-car stories welcome on Twix.
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This article, “CATS Security Shrunk as Spending Grew: Inside the Contracts, Headcounts, and the Timeline,” by Jack Beckett is licensed under CC BY-ND 4.0.
“CATS Security Shrunk as Spending Grew: Inside the Contracts, Headcounts, and the Timeline”
by Jack Beckett, The Charlotte Mercury (CC BY-ND 4.0)