BART approves ‘ambassadors’ patrolling trains
OAKLAND » BART riders will start seeing new uni formed “ambassadors” aboard late- night trains next month after the agency’s board approved a six- month trial run meant to reassure passengers anxious about the system’s safety after dark.
The unanimous vote Thursday — which will allow pairs of unarmed ambassadors to patrol some trains from 2 p. m. until midnight each night — came after nearly two years of debate within BART over how to improve the rider experience during nighttime trips.
Riders have complained that riding trains at night can be harrowing. Many have said they feel more vulnerable to crime or just uncomfortable once the evening rush hour’s crowds die down. BART’s ridership on nights and weekends has been slipping, with some riders saying they try to avoid the system after hours if they can.
“It gets lonely sometimes on those trains at night,” said BART Director Lateefah Simon, who long has pushed for the ambassador program.
Under the $690,000 pilot program, the new ambassadors would start training later this month and start riding trains in 10-hour shifts Feb. 10.
During the evening commute, from 2 to 7 p. m., teams will patrol along the suburban stretches of two BART lines, with some riding back and forth from Walnut Creek to Pittsburg/ Bay Point and others from Oakland’s Coliseum station to Union City.
Then, from 7 p.m. until the system winds down at midnight, the teams will switch to the core of the BART system in downtown San Francisco and Oakland, circulating between the Civic Center and 12th Street stations.
The 10 new ambassadors will be there to respond to riders’ complaints, answer their questions and report hazards that need cleaning, such as blood, urine, feces and other fluids on trains. Their training will cover how to de- escalate confrontations and recognize unconscious racial bias.
Unlike police officers, though, the ambassadors will not have the authority to issue citations or make arrests if they witness a crime or violation of BART’s rules. They instead will be expected to call in the problem on their police radios, leaving any arrests or citations to BART police officers.
The goal of the program is to provide an official presence patrolling trains at hours when it can often seem like anything goes and passengers are on their own. But the BART board’s more progressive members did not want to go so far as to use traditional BART police officers for the role, concerned that such a presence could lead to more heavy-handed tactics.
“We need more folks committed to a holistic and equitable safety vision,” Simon said.
Earlier iterations of the ambassadors idea called for staffing the program with workers from local community- based organizations, but the union representing BART police officers opposed that plan.
In a compromise that appears to have sealed the program’s approval, the ambassadors instead will be community service officers from the BART Police Department, meaning they receive background checks and training from the department.
“That absolved all reservations I had associated with this,” Director John McPartland said.
Although the BART Police Officers Association dropped its opposition to the program following the change, President Keith Garcia warned in comments to the board that the initiative would only increase the “perception of safety” in the system. Garcia said the ambassadors should not be seen as a substitute for hiring new police officers, or for “hardening” stations with higher barriers, new fare gates and other efforts to make it difficult for people to sneak into BART without paying.
“Until the system is hardened and we have additional officers at every station, the actual safety of the system won’t improve much,” Garcia warned.
Along with the ambassadors program, the board Thursday signed off on a $810,000 plan to build a new fare gate around the elevator at the Coliseum station, using a prototype of the new swinging fare gate design directors approved last year. The agency hopes to eventually use those gates throughout the system.
And BART of ficials noted their stepped-up efforts to hire more police officers — 63 were hired in 2019 — are continuing this year.
“Even if we get to our police hiring goals, we are still not going to have a police officer at every station at every moment,” Director Rebecca Saltzman said. “So we need to get creative.”