BART Cops Hardly Ever on BART
Categories: Law & Order, Public Transit
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| No police in this picture. No coincidence. |
While studies -- and riders -- have been clamoring for more officers on trains for more than 15 years, until this year BART did not even make the step of formally keeping track of how much time BART police spend on BART.
Now they do. And the answer: Not much.
KTVU-TV obtained BART's police records for May, June, and July via a public records request. Crunching the numbers, it determined officers are only taking three train rides per every 10-hour shift -- perhaps 15 minutes of train time. In 2009, SF Weekly reported that officers are only required to make two such rides per shift -- in fact, prior to late in 2009, BART police didn't even have the requirement of making two rides per shift.
Confronted with KTVU's statistics, BART Police Patrol Commander Daniel Hartwig told the station passengers would surely see more cops on platforms in the near future, and prophesied of a future force within the BART Police Department that solely rides on trains.
All well and good -- but, in December of 2009, SF Weekly was told BART was planning to beef up police presence on trains and in stations -- and was dreaming of a future when a team of cops was dedicated to solely riding on trains.
Until then, it seems the surest way to cross paths with a BART cop is to stay off BART.
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