During her tenure, Metro put 48 more security officers on their team and adopted an ambassador program throughout the rail system to guide customers and provide some homeless outreach, though she did not oversee the latter. She was also behind a proposal to create a Metro police agency that's still evolving.

She coordinated operations with the three police agencies that patrol the system: the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, Los Angeles Police Department and Long Beach Police Department.

"I was surprised to learn she was no longer with Metro," said Sheriff's Capt. Shawn Kehoe, who heads the sheriff's Transit Services Bureau. On Tuesday morning, he had several meetings scheduled with her. He met with her twice, but a Metro staffer announced during his third planned meeting that she was no longer with the agency.

Metro has come under intense pressure to improve safety for commuters, many of whom don't feel safe on trains and buses and in stations. While ridership has continued to grow back, Metro's union representing bus and rail operators has been pushing the agency to improve conditions by putting in protective barriers, for instance, around bus drivers. Metro said a prototype is set to be released in the coming months.

John M. Ellis, who heads the local affiliate of SMART, the International Assn. of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers, representing about 5,000 rail and bus operators, said he has seen safety improve under her leadership, but more must still be done.

Metro spokesman Dave Sotero said, "Bus operator safety weighs heavily on the minds of everyone at Metro — as does the safety of all our front-line employees, including rail operators, custodians and more."

Osborn would not be the first in her department to leave abruptly. Her former deputy chief, Andrew Black, also a former FBI agent, filed a lawsuit against Metro in 2022, accusing Wiggins of retaliating against him for protesting unsafe work conditions.

Black believes that violence and ongoing crime will remain the "hallmark of Metro so long as this leadership continues its course of indifference to the suffering and plight of the unhoused and the callous disregard for the health and safety of Metro commuters and employees," according to his lawsuit.

Osborn told him that Wiggins was upset he had "spoken to the bus operators honestly about the problems and provided solutions to protect their health and welfare," and she ordered him to no longer speak to operators about safety, his lawsuit alleges.

Osborn told him that she had gotten in trouble herself with Wiggins "for having spoken honestly in the past," the lawsuit said. About two months after the incident, he was fired and is seeking in excess of $5 million in damages.

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