BART to bring back former NOBLE auditor to assess police reforms

BART Police Department (PD) Chief Kenton Rainey is announcing retired Police Chief Patrick Oliver, the original lead evaluator of the NOBLE auditing team, will begin an assessment of BART police reforms in July.

"I want to bring Oliver back to conduct an assessment of BART PD’s reforms since 2010,” Rainey said. “Oliver had oversight over the original NOBLE auditing team. When I came on board, my goals were—and continue to be— to improve public safety and increase police visibility, strengthen and empower our organizational leaders so they can ensure accountability and provide proper guidance to our personnel; and strengthen our ties to the community so together we can work toward making BART the safest metropolitan transit system in the nation. This audit will serve as a barometer of our organizational change efforts."

Chief Rainey has asked Oliver to do an assessment on the progress of the following key recommendations made from the original NOBLE audit:

1. Organizational Statements
2. Community Engagement
3. Training
4. Patrol Priorities
5. Personnel Selection
6. Employee Performance Standards
7. Use of Force
8. Biased based policing
9. Internal Affairs
10. Discipline

The NOBLE Audit Report was completed in April 2010 after an independent review was initiated in 2009. The NOBLE Management Audit Final Report, received on March 25, 2010, includes recommendations based on a comprehensive assessment of BART Police Department policies and tactics from recruitment, hiring and training to use of force and investigatory practices.