Transit worker protection training promoted
WITS Global highlighted T.E.P.S., a Transit Employee Protection System that trains staff in conflict resolution and self‑protection to boost front‑line resilience. The program is being marketed as a way to reduce worker vulnerability and improve operational safety in confrontational incidents. Training packages aimed at de‑escalation and employee protection are increasingly visible as agencies face both safety and public‑engagement pressures. (x.com)
A company called WITS Global is pushing a product named Transit Employee Protection System, or T.E.P.S., at the same moment U.S. transit agencies are under new federal pressure to train workers for confrontations on buses and trains. WITS described T.E.P.S. as training in conflict resolution and self-protection for front-line staff in a recent post promoting the program. (x.com) That pitch lands in a market that changed in 2024, when the Federal Transit Administration said assaults on transit workers had become a “significant and continuing national-level safety risk.” The agency’s General Directive 24-1 requires covered transit agencies to assess that risk, choose mitigations, and report back within 90 days. (federalregister.gov) The federal government also rewrote the rulebook for training itself. The Public Transportation Agency Safety Plans regulation now says agencies must include de-escalation training, safety concern reporting, and refresher training for operations workers and other safety-sensitive staff. (ecfr.gov) That change did not come out of nowhere. The U.S. Department of Transportation said National Transit Database records showed assaults against transit workers rose 120 percent from 2013 to 2021. (transportation.gov) A separate Urban Institute analysis found the more serious category of assaults nearly tripled over 15 years, rising from 168 cases in 2008 to 492 in 2022. The study defined those as incidents involving a fatality or an injury serious enough to require medical transport. (urban.org) Federal data released in December 2024 showed the problem was still active after the rule changes started. The Federal Transit Administration’s own slide deck counted 347 transit worker assaults of all severities from April 2023 through July 2024, with fiscal 2024 figures labeled preliminary because they covered only October 2023 through July 2024. (transit.dot.gov) So the business case for programs like T.E.P.S. is simple: agencies now need something concrete they can put into a safety plan, into a training calendar, and into an audit file. The Federal Transit Administration even built a public de-escalation training directory in February 2024 to help agencies find and compare training resources. (transit.dot.gov) Industry groups are moving in the same direction. In February 2026, the American Public Transportation Association published a recommended practice on transit de-escalation policy and training focused on fare disputes and other confrontations, with the stated goal of reducing assaults on workers. (apta.com) What WITS is selling, then, is not a gadget in search of a problem. It is a private training package entering a transit system where federal rules, agency safety plans, and industry guidance are all converging on the same point: drivers, station staff, and other front-line employees are now expected to be trained not just to run service, but to defuse conflict before it turns violent. (x.com) (ecfr.gov) (apta.com)
