BART PD showcases teams helping to prevent crime and harassment amid ridership surge
The BART Police Department is building on its increased visibility in the system using non-sworn Transit Ambassadors and Crisis Intervention Specialists as thousands of riders return to the system this month. Those unarmed BPD staff are bolstering the presence already provided by sworn officers. BART’s weekday ridership in March 2022 has reached its highest numbers since the Bay Area’s first stay-at-home orders in March 2020. Weekend ridership has rebounded even more strongly with some days totaling more than half of pre-Covid ridership projections.
“Increasing our presence in the system is vital to making sure returning riders feel safe,” said BART Police Department Chief Ed Alvarez. “We are among the first transit police agencies in the country to take the approach of using non-sworn staff in this way as a force multiplier. Transit Ambassadors and Crisis Intervention Specialists are making a difference everyday through dozens of welfare contacts and responding to calls that free up my sworn officers for other emergencies.”
Non-sworn personnel are also playing an important role in preventing and interrupting harassment – including sexual harassment, street harassment, as well as hateful actions and language. Returning riders are coming back to a system where violent crime was down 36% last year compared with 2020. Electronic item thefts have also been on the decline from a pandemic high of 47 events in November 2020 to only 12 in December 2021.
The BPD’s new Progressive Policing Bureau is on track to soon reach full staffing levels as more riders are making the choice to return to the BART system. The Progressive Policing Bureau is home to BPD’s Transit Ambassadors and Crisis Intervention Specialists. Currently the Progressive Policing Bureau includes 10 Transit Ambassadors and 15 Crisis Intervention Specialists who work in coordination with sworn officers. Those non-sworn, unarmed staff are on the job across the system and combined are walking dozens of trains and checking on dozens of station platforms each day.
BPD is ramping up its hiring initiatives to maintain an elevated presence in the BART system, which acts as a deterrent against crime. The department is in the process of recruiting five additional Crisis Intervention Specialists as well as more than 20 sworn officers.
