How Do We Protect Bus Drivers? What about Arming Them?

Would an enclosure like the one pictured above really keep drivers safe--or could such a barrier be easily breached by an attacker?

Today during the BCC's Committee of the Whole meeting, we were given a presentation about purchasing protective barriers to make Bus Drivers safer.  (Video here)

A Bus Driver in the Tampa area was recently murdered on duty, he had his throat slashed.

We were told by staff our current protocols are working and that no drivers have been assaulted.

But then the President of the Bus Driver's Union, Mike Lowery, came up and detailed several incidents that occurred of which staff was seemingly unaware.

"XXXX was choked, ask XXXXXX about it?"

XXXXX had hands laid upon her, ask XXXXXX about it?

"I myself had a passenger spit right in my face!"  Mike stated.  "It was a while back, but it happened--these incidents happen!"
The barriers they presented, that would cost about $178K to install in our fleet, looked weak and unable to stop anyone from getting to the driver..let alone someone that was going berserk or spaced out and tripping on drugs.

"I'd get through that quick, and I'm 51 years old!" I quipped.

I then asked Mr. Lowery what he thought about the idea of the drivers carrying a concealed weapon for self-defense--which he did not receive too well.  "There are laws against that"  he stated.

But there are not laws that prevent this.  There is a county ordinance that prohibits this practice.  And the county could, if there were support to do so, repeal or change the ordinance to allow concealed carry for bus drivers.

The idea wasn't warmly received by my counterparts, though, so it probably won't happen.

But I asked Mike this  "What is a driver to do if he/she is attacked---call dispatch and wait for a policeman to come??  "Meanwhile, do they just absorb the attack?"

.....No good answer came.  Maybe we should do it like they do it in Israel and arm the drivers?  Or like Milwaukee Wisconsin?

Didn't sound like there was a very good plan for what a driver would do to defend himself/herself here in Escambia County from an attacker/attackers on one of our buses.  What are they supposed to do, get pushed into the wall and get worked over like the old boxing maneuver the "rope a dope!"

Maybe the drivers could wear self-contained astronaut-style body protection suits like the one developed by a Canadian inventor that made a suit capable of withstanding grizzly bear attacks?--I mean how ridiculous does protection have to be? (NOTE:  Inventor of the Grizzly Bear suit, the URSA Mark VI, Troy Hurtubise, died in a fiery traffic collision in Northern Canada in 2018--he never "fought" a real bear wearing the suit.....)

Stay tuned for more discussion on this topic in the weeks and months to come---as staff will be researching different shield/enclosure models that provide better protection and also they will be looking into the claims of assaults on drivers that were given today.