Not paying for a TriMet ticket isn’t a crime—but TriMet officers can still ask to see your ticket.

That’s the key takeaway from an amendment the TriMet Board passed today, clarifying that failing to pay transit fare is not a criminal offense, but that it is still constitutional for transit officers to request proof of payment.

The ordinance is an update to TriMet’s codes and procedures. It was drafted in response to a ruling in Multnomah Circuit Court earlier this year, which found that an incident in which a TriMet employee and a transit police officer asked a woman for proof of payment was unconstitutional.

In that March incident, a TriMet employee was checking passengers’ proof of payments as they exited a MAX train at the Old Town/Chinatown stop. One of those passengers was Ana del Rocío, who didn't have valid fare that day.

The fare inspector then asked del Rocío for identification, which she refused to offer. This caught the attention of a transit officer, who ended up arresting del Rocío for giving false information to a police officer.

The Multnomah Circuit Court found that that del Rocío’s “individual liberty and her freedom of movement" were significantly restricted by both TriMet and the transit officer involved. It ruled that del Rocío was “stopped and seized without individualized suspicion,” making the interaction unlawful under the state constitution.

The court’s September ruling prompted some, including the ACLU of Oregon, to posit that all random TriMet fare checks were unconstitutional. But TriMet has maintained that the case of del Rocío was an isolated incident.

“TriMet respectfully disagrees [with the court] and considers a request for proof of payment to be a lawful encounter,” reads a memo associated with today’s passed ordinance.

That said, TriMet has recently changed its approach to handling fare evaders. In July, the agency enacted a new policy that gave fare evaders 90 days to resolve a citation outside of the court system, so that it would not become part of the evader’s court record.

Today’s amendment clarifies that fare evasion is not a criminal offense, and that TriMet has the authority to ask for proof of payment, provided it does so in a non-discriminatory manor.

A recent independent analysis found that TriMet is not guilty of racial bias in its fare enforcement. But Matt dos Santos of the ACLU of Oregon has said that fare enforcement “has an outsized effect on people of color, because it increases the already disparate impacts of over-policing and over-prosecution.”