Want to blame somebody for the recent killing?
If you are looking for someone to blame for the recent killing at Fruitvale, blame BART for having no security in their stations or on the trains. Young people (of all races) routinely jump the fare gates or go around fare gates using elevators. Many of these fare evaders use BART as their playground, by running through cars, making noise, swinging from the handholds, wrestling on the floors and threatening other paying passengers. This is not to say that the officer was justified in the shooting, but until BART gets control of its fare gates it will continue to have violent episodes like the one that occurred on New Years Eve.
personally i've been
personally i've been expecting some self defense shooting to happen for years, something like a 80 year old granny with a .38 in her purse.
Remember the horror stories
Remember the horror stories of assaults and robberies that occurred during those totally free Spare the Air days?
Amen.
Amen.
BART has a problem though...
BART has a problem though... on the one hand, it's a business. As such, it needs to be sensitive to not pissing off its paying passengers. That's an extremely fine line to walk. In order to determine whether or not a passenger is paying or non-paying, you have to start asking passengers to produce a valid ticket. Paying passengers don't take too kindly to the suggestion that they're thieves. And how do you tell who is paying or not unless you see them fare evade?
With only one cop for every two or three stations, it is not possible for the BART police to be everywhere at once. And since cops have to deal with a lot more than just fare evaders, it's not possible for them to even spend all of their time dealing with this (and even when they do, these often turn into more than just fare evasion, as they often find out the fare evaders have warrants, which then turns it into an arrest and report writing and all kinds of other time taken away from catching fare evaders). And focusing solely on fare-evading does nothing to prevent muggings and car break-ins in the parking lots, which catching fare evaders probably won't prevent. And it does nothing to prevent terrorism, or even some of the other crimes and stuff BART police deal with.
Sure, station agents can keep tabs for fare evaders and report them. But that requires the station agent to actually CARE about this enough to report it. AND for an officer to be nearby so that they can intercept the person immediately. Closest officer the next station away? The fare evader will be long gone by the time the officer gets there.
BART police do already watch for and cite fare evaders. At some stations they have ways of secretly watching the fare gates and other points of fare evasion, and then quickly apprehend the person. Unless BART ponies up more money to hire more cops, there just aren't the resources to ever make fare evasion fully stop.
The other problem? The courts. Many officers get sick of citing fare evaders when they just get dismissed in the courts (SF is notorious for this, as I understand it). What incentive is there for the fare evaders to stop then? You can't lock them up for fare evasion.
I still say that BART should
I still say that BART should pushing habitual fare evaders with community service like cleaning BART bathrooms.
Yeah, but if they contracted
Yeah, but if they contracted a horrible incurable disease from cleaning up the nasty mess that's in there, they'd sue BART and win.
all you have to do is ask
all you have to do is ask each station agent a simple question: "how many fare evaders do estimate you see on a daily basis?" then post an undercover cop at the fare gates of the top three evading stations for a week. if you do the occasional crackdown, people will get the hint.
if people see jumping the gates as an easy free ride, they will do it. if they see it as delaying them 20 minutes while a ticket is written AND not getting that free ride, they will stop - even if the ticket is eventually thrown out.
But fare evaders don't
But fare evaders don't generally do it right in front of the station agent. I've seen people jump onto the platform at South Hayward from the railroad tracks behind the station. I've seen people use the elevators that are outside the station, like at Bayfair. I've seen people use the emergency exit gates in areas of the station that are generally deserted (like where the bike station is now at Berkeley - when that wasn't there, people would use it to fare evade all the time). There are all kinds of ways people do it, and station agents wont see all of it. Only the stupid fare evaders just try to hop the gates.
Ok, then figure out the fare
Ok, then figure out the fare evasion hotspots and block them. The more difficult you make it to fare evade, whether that be via a reasonable chance of getting a ticket or having to scale a 20 foot barb wire fence, the less people are going to do it.
I see them do it in front of
I see them do it in front of station agents all the time. they know the SA is not going to pursue them .
Station Agents are given
Station Agents are given specific instructions NOT to confront fare evaders.
i agree sweeps would help,
i agree sweeps would help, one station at a time.
I was told this a while back
I was told this a while back and it makes perfect sense.
If BART was really concerned about fare evasion, the stations would have been designed differently to make it difficult to fare evade. Period.
The stations were designed to
The stations were designed to be too trusting of patrons, IMHO.
They could go down a
They could go down a different route, and create a "Fare Inspector" position similar to what SF Muni uses. It's funny to think that something Muni does might actually be a good idea.
Apparently the amount of fare evasion citations that are rejected is pretty low in SF, despite the above-mentioned notoriety. It would free the officers of doing this dastardly duty and may add funding to the cash-strapped organization.
Of course, who wants to pony up the money to hire fare inspectors...