BART has a fare evasion problem.
Solutions, or at least the data to inform them, are being collected as part of a study announced Tuesday by BART’s Office of the Independent Police Auditor and a nonprofit that did a previous report on the issue for the transit agency.
The Center for Policing Equity, which in 2021 released a report on the BART Police Department’s pedestrian and vehicle stops and uses of force, is doing an 18-month analysis of BART’s fare evasion enforcement policies to help the agency determine what is or isn’t working in its efforts to secure the system.
Pre-pandemic, BART had estimated it lost $15 million to $25 million to fare evasion each year, and the study announced this week is meant to look at whether the money spent to tackle the issue is being used equitably considering the findings of the prior report.
That report found, among other conclusions, that while Black Americans were less than 9 percent of people served by BART police, they comprised about 63 percent of the people who experienced uses of force by the transit agency’s police officers.
Hans Menos from the Center for Policing Equity says the new study and the center’s partnership with BART is meant to “focus on making the lives and the movement and the transit of people, particularly Black and brown people, more safe, more equitable and more fair.”
BART on Tuesday reported two of its highest monthly arrest totals since before the pandemic after starting a new enforcement strategy in March to double the number of sworn officers riding on trains in the core of the system.
The agency’s Board of Directors also last month approved a contract to install new fare gates systemwide, with a prototype for the new gates set to be installed at the West Oakland BART station by the end of the year. There are currently about 700 fare gates across the BART system.
Menos said gates that can keep more fare evaders out would be “a good example of a solution that’s different than a punitive response” and could lessen the number of problematic interactions between BART police and riders.
BART Independent Police Auditor Russell Bloom said in a statement about the new study, “Using data to examine the root causes of disparate outcomes is a critically important way to understand which reforms are working and where we may need to refocus our attention and resources.”
The data and conclusions from the study will go to BART’s Board of Directors and its Police Citizen Review Board for review to consider any related policy changes.
26 comments
As long as BART is working with a group called the “Center for Policing Equity” nothing will get better.
I’m sure the fact that “while Black Americans were less than 9 percent of people served by BART police, they comprised about 63 percent of the people who experienced uses of force by the transit agency’s police officers” will be viewed as evidence that BART policing is unfair, when the real question should be why is a minority ridership causing the majority of the problems?
Right. I ride BART all the time to SF. those 9% cause 90% of the problems. Why? I don’t know, and don’t care. You do the crime, you do the time.
IMHO … It seems that we don’t have a “Racial Problem” ….. we have a Problem Race!?!
This is SO true!.. what seems like simple fare evasion, that BART is trying to overlook because it’s usually done by black youth.and transients…excused because of..equity and all the other buzz words, is linked to all the other problems on BART! I used to see it everyday, but now that I’ve cut back my Bart riding I only see it once a week. Sitting in traffic in my private car is now preferable to the unpleasant interactions that riding Bart exposes me almost every time.
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Another study bases on “woke” principles.
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‘Menos said gates that can keep more fare evaders out would be “a good example of a solution that’s different than a punitive response”
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If people followed the law and punishment were severe, there would be no need for the new fare gates.
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In the many poor countries I have traveled to for business, riders of Public transportation always pay their fares or if they attempt to evade, they are thrown into jail. The 13%ers will always be a problem regardless what plan or term you come up with to seek the root causes.
Whenever seeing equity in title of a ‘study’,
take name of organization add soros and plug it into a search engine.
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Plug this, “Center for Policing Equity” “soros”
into a search engine and see what pops up.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VT2v64Ykxc0
A failed system headed by a failed Board and Administration.
Closing it down would be ok by me…..
Are you BART management really this f-ing stupid and ignorant?
You people are beyond pathetic being incapable of know how to handle this.
I’m glad I have never had to ride BART or put up with the jerks that run it.
Debora Allen is the only BART director with any brains and she’s fighting a losing battle against the other morons.
So true, Deborah Allen is the only sane person there! All the rest of Bart board thinks it has a duty to house the homeless on their trains intellect inner city punks ride free and intimidate the rest of the passengers. This is why Bart is in trouble! The rest of us paying passengers have reduced our riding or stopped al together.
lower the fare! Everybody looking for a free ride like the illegals get.
I guess the security cameras are racist to cause they show about the same ratio.
Study the fact BART hasn’t been doing their job?! … ok – there’s your study – now do your job and stop fare evaders and prosecute those that do! .. there done!
Seems that many “Studies” seem to Identify Excuses.. As opposed to Solutions..
Any use of the terms “equity” and “root cause” = No action or interest in solving the problem, they are just marking time and enjoying a paycheck.
Next they’ll launch a study to determine how many fare evaders duck under or jump over the gates. It’s important to make sure we are not discriminating against little people, or future NBA stars.
Let the hole system go broke and no tax payer bailout, study that
Problem solved!
Last time I rode BARF (pre-pandemic) I had a young “man” tag behind me and shoved me out of the way so he could get out without paying. I screamed at him because he pushed so hard that I fell. BARF police were there but they either didn’t hear/see me (doubt it, since they were right by the booth) or just chose to ignore what had just happened.
I wonder , have all these committees and oversight people ever considered so many blacks are arrested because …… oh nevermind.
There is no fare evasion problem. There is a homeless and ghetto problem.
Time to have better fares for off peak travel instead of the same fare all of the time. Lets see better fare gates that don’t allow fare evaders and allow free travel.
The gift that keeps giving .. not having to ride BART anymore. I hated when creeps snuck up right behind me, practically touching me, to evade fare. I would turn and yell and then they’d just hop over without missing a beat.
I remember complaining in vain to the agent and shared that if I walked though, being a middle-aged woman wearing pearls and a business suit, I’d no doubt be stopped.
Will Hans Menos write a letter to the fare evaders about how “angry” he is, like Hans Blix in ‘Team America’? 😂 Oh, again I’m so grateful to be done with what was over two decades of ridership.
I see the evaders, almost daily, at 19th St just step over the gates–they don’t even bother to scoot in behind you anymore. There’s no one around to do/say anything. More often than not there is no station agent and if there is they can’t do anything. So depressing.
An 18-month analysis of BART’s fare evasion enforcement policies to help the agency determine what is or isn’t working in its efforts to secure the system?
Wtf is the matter with the BART board???? I coulda told them the problem for a tenth of what they paid for their “study.”
This is the same agency that REFUSED to cooperate with their inspector general- who ultimately quit. There needs to be a grand jury investigation (at least) of the whole agency!
Waiting until they find the percentage is even high with this report!
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