BART Takes Big Step to Increase Police on the System

This week the BART Board voted unanimously to instantly boost the salaries of their police in July by 21% in a bold statement to retain and attract more officers.  BART was paying below comparative agencies and departments.  Some Board members credited pressure from the Bay Area Council for the move.  BART has approximately 30 vacancies and 30 new officers would add to the 90 or so currently available to police trains and stations.  Filling these spots is a top priority in order to make the system safer and recruit riders back, according to our polling and many surveys, and very likely would more than pay for itself in increased ridership and fares.  We believe the system needs even more officers and we will return to that issue in the weeks ahead.  We also intend to continue to keep the pressure on to get new fare gates installed much faster than the current timeline of 2026 and prioritize new fare gates in the core stations in San Francisco and Oakland.  We applaud BARTs moves and look forward to more work to rebuild ridership and restore safety.