BART Police Chief Ed Alvarez announces retirement

BART Police Chief Ed Alvarez, who has led the department’s efforts to embrace progressive policing and to boost the visible safety presence on the system, is announcing his retirement. Chief Alvarez is retiring after 25 plus years of service with the department including spending the last four as Chief of Police. Alvarez’s last day on the job will be on Monday, May 1, 2023, at which time Deputy Chief Kevin Franklin, who currently heads BPD’s Operations Division, will be appointed interim chief.

“It’s been the greatest honor of my career to lead the people of the BART Police Department for the last four years as we’ve welcomed the Bay Area back to transit in the wake of the pandemic,” said Chief Alvarez. “I’m proud of all the work we’ve done as we’ve strived together to make BART PD one of the most progressive and community-oriented police departments in the nation.”

Alvarez was appointed as BART’s Chief of Police in January 2020 after having served as the interim leader of the department since April of 2019. His accomplishments over the last four years include:

*Implementing a new deployment initiative in March to bolster rider safety by more than doubling the number of sworn officers on trains.

*Launching the Progressive Policing and Community Engagement Bureau to bolster the department’s unarmed safety presence on BART. The bureau is among the first of its kind for any transit agency in the country.

*Reaching full staffing of 20 Crisis Intervention Specialists to boost efforts to help people in the system experiencing challenges with mental health, lack of housing, or drugs.

*Collaborating with the Office of the Independent Police Auditor and Police Citizens Review Board to implement important reforms including the elimination of the use of carotid control holds and eliminating the term “excited delirium” from the BPD policy manual.

*Voluntarily working with the Center for Policing Equity on an analysis of BPD’s practices and behaviors becoming the first transit law enforcement agency in the country to undergo such a review.

Deputy Chief Franklin who will take over as interim chief has been with BART PD since 1996. Franklin has worked a variety of assignments with BPD including patrol and data analysis. He has been an instructor for many of the subjects in the department’s training programs. Franklin was promoted to lieutenant in 2007 and served as BART’s Manager of Security Programs from 2011 to 2018.