Where are the BART police?
I ride BART every day and I can't remember the last time I saw BART police walking through the cars or in any of the stations. Not that their presence would make me feel any safer. One wonders, exactly what is BART going to do if something bad happens? A plot by would be terrorists planning to blow up the PATH trains to New Jersey was just uncovered. Why shouldn't we assume that some crazed islamofascist in the Bay Area knows exactly how many thousand people are moving through the tube at peak commute time at 130 feet below the surface of the bay. But oh, I forgot, things like that don't happen in California.
yes where are they? Its
yes where are they? Its inexcusable that they are not on the trains 24/7
I'm not about bagging on
I'm not about bagging on cops but it's true, I rarely see them walking from car to car. I normally see Bart Police standing chatting to Station Agents and more, I see them watching riders as they enter the gates. Not sure, if they are just short on Police.
Well, on Tuesday they were
Well, on Tuesday they were near Fruitvale, 3 cars, eating at a Mexican Restaurant at about 11ish.
Today there were 4 guys sitting in front of Jamba Juice checking out the girls at City Center for lunch.
I'm just a poor old bike messenger in Oaksterdam, I get around a lot, and for some reason alwasy spy em
sitting at lunch. Hey, I would if I could too. I only ride BART when I have to ride. I'm sure they gotta eat too, but it's funny that I seem em more on the road than on the BART.
omigod,having lunch? How
omigod,having lunch? How dare they! Watching fare gates, for fare evaders? Why? Not on trains because they have to watch the parking lots to keep paroled scum from breaking into your car? What next? Driving Police cars to incidents because it is faster than taking a train and lets them take suspects to jail? Get a clue, how often do you see your city police? Bet you whine about them too. Do a ride along if you are going to whine, and see what they are "not doing"
I know! Cops ARE people
I know! Cops ARE people too. They have stomachs that need food. Cops are allowed lunch breaks and coffee breaks just like any other job. Do you expect someone to work 10 hours without taking a break? Jesus.
FYI, those officers you saw
FYI, those officers you saw at Jamba Juice were part of a special team, which is not normally assigned to a specific beat. They were NOT the regular BART officers who patrol the stations in Oakland. Those officers were still on the job, patrolling and servicing their beats, while the 4 others on that team were having their Jamba Juice.
Don't be so quick to jump to conclusions about things you don't have all the facts for, and that you honestly don't know all that much about. You know what they say about people who make assumptions...
Same goes for when people see other officers taking a break -- they are legally allowed to do so, just like any other employee in the state of California. The difference is that they're still "on duty." If they get a call in the middle of their coffee or their chinese food or their Jamba Juice, they have to drop their food to respond to the call. Let these officers enjoy their 30 minutes of lunch in peace when they can. Man times, they don't get to finish it. Imagine how angry you'd be if your boss interuppted your lunch constantly, because he needed you back at work. But, officers dutifully put up with that every day, without whining about it. Instead, people like you make a big deal out of them taking a few minutes to rest their tired feet, and grab a little nourishment so they have the energy to apprehend criminals and do their jobs.
And just because you see a group of officers it doesn't mean their beats are left unmanned. As in the Jamba Juice case, what you saw wasn't what you thought it was. And in other cases, there are cover units which can step in for officers on their breaks. Plus, like I said, even on their break, they're still on call.
Yes. BART is short on
Yes. BART is short on police officers and they've been operating that way for a few years now. It's very time consuming to find the proper candidates for the job. Contrary to popular belief, not everyone can be a police officer and it is a very difficult and competitive profession to get into. On top of that, BART police officers have to have 45 college credit units before an application will be accepted. Very few police department require this.
BART cops build rapports with the station agents because the agents witness a majority of crimes that occur in stations and often testify to crimes that ocurred in their presence. Even if their having a friendly conversation, at least the cop is in the station and can act as a deterent for criminal activity or provide a quick response in the event a crime does occur. I'd much rather see a cop in the station than sitting in the corner of a parking lot where there is no one.
BART cops have assigned patrol beats and are responsible for a certain amount of stations. The reason they have cars is for quick response to emergency calls and in progress crimes.
A vehicle allows an officer the option to approach from different areas, depending on the situation. If every crook knew the cops were coming in on the next Richmond bound, they'd take appropriate steps to avoid capture.
BART does not yet have enough officers to devote soley to trains on a regular basis.
There are so many people on here offering suggestions or criticizing cops, but they have no police experience what-so-ever. Before you form negative opinions, ask some questions and learn a little about why things happen the way they do.
The stupid thing about your
The stupid thing about your comment is that BART does not run 24 hours a day. Are you suggesting that BART should pay police officers to patrol empty trains that aren't moving?
and why the hell doesnt bart
and why the hell doesnt bart run 24 hours a day? it costs enough, christ. i just moved here from chicago and the two main lines of cta run all night as far as you want for 2 bucks. the reason there are so many spare the air days are because city planning has created a layout in oakland/berkeley/baywherever that makes it virtually impossible to have a social life without a car. of course we could all just be good little drones and take bart to work and come straight home and just plug into the tube.
There are owl busses that go
There are owl busses that go between stations during off peak hours.
BART uses the down time in
BART uses the down time in the middle of the night for train and track maintenance. Without that gap, they'd have to cause serious and frequent delays in order to fix a section of track or repair a broken train (which then couldn't be used). BART doesn't have an unlimited supply of trains at their disposal. And fixing a track in the middle of service is not only dangerous for the crews, but bad for service. I'm sure we've all experienced single tracking. Sure, there are occasionally times when they have to perform maintenance in the middle of the day. But, that's usually because they have no choice.
Also, their down time is the only time they have to clean the trains. Granted, "clean" is a relative term here. But, the maintenence workers need that time to at least pick up all the trash, remove graffiti, and do some spot cleaning. Of course, after the first wave or two of morning commuters, the trains are usually trashed again anyway.
BART has also offered 24 hour service on multiple occasions in the past. And while it has been very convenient for some people, the fact is very few people actually used it. It ended up costing BART more money to offer it than they brought in from middle of the night fares.
it's true. Not that many
it's true. Not that many people actually used BART when they did that 24 hour run. Also the window BART trains aren't running is so minimal. 4 hours in the middle of the night is not that big of a deal.
BS...should "maintenence
BS...should "maintenence workers need that time to at least pick up all the trash, remove graffiti, and do some spot cleaning", then why is it that i found yesterday's newspaper on the floor this morning. don't blame morning commuters.
Because most Californians
Because most Californians live in this bubble of "can't happen to me if I don't acknowledge it."
In NY, you don't have a choice, you get pulled into trouble. Here, you just have to walk away, or look away,
and whatever it was that was bothering you is gone most of the time.
Nobody wants to take responsibility for their own actions in today's society. The cops can only do so much, but, like so many people, they "expect" to be taken care of by the police, fire, rescue. Don't believe me, then why was everyone screaming after Katrina for FEMA FEMA FEMA...help me help me help me. The signs were there, just most people didn't take action before the disaster. Sorry Louisians gov and New Orleans' mayor were retarded and didn't order an evacuation, but you should wait for someone to tell you what to do.
Sometimes you have no warning like those in Indonesia, but the fishermen and their families knew the signs and took off, and they had no technology, just good common sense.
In this case it comes down to common sense. BART is a prime target for terrorists and just a mobile area for criminal who know how to take advantage of the system. Yes, the police and other security forces should look at the system more closely, but we as society should take more presonal responisibilty for what happens in our community and figure out what we can do as citizens to make it better.
If you say, "It's not my job." Then I guess it's not mine or anyone elses job to help you when you are hurt, suffering, being attacked, or just being a good witness.
Wow, how did you get to be
Wow, how did you get to be such an expert on Indonesean fisherman? Let's see, how many were killed in that sunami, dittohead?
Because I am educated and
Because I am educated and read other things besides Blogs, newsgroups, and tabloids.
My whole point was common sense. A majority of those that were killed initially were those that ran down to the beach to check out the water receding into the ocean. The fishermen, who live and work on that ocean, knew what that meant so they took off either to higher ground or further out to sea.
Did you know our planet was thrown off it’s axis after that quake? How about the fact that our time even shifted?
Do a little research and go back to high school.
HA HA, you're funny! Yup. I
HA HA, you're funny!
Yup. I saw a PBS thing on the earthquake, and I remember them saying that the fishermen and some people on these really tiny islands were able to survive becuase of teachings that where passed down from generation to generation about the ocean, waves and stuff. They said that a lot of people went down to the beach to collect fish and other things when the water receeded, before the wave came. The wave came in too fast for people to react.
Today's CC Times had a
Today's CC Times had a highly disturbing article, "BART Lacks Terror Funds, Officials Say", that said of $131 million in Homeland Security Funding given to 3 Bay Area cities since 2003, BART has received less than 1% although BART is the #1 terror target in CA (remember Madrid, London, Mumbai/ Bombay?). This may be a reason we don't have enough BART police to constantly patrol the trains. In any case, it seeems BART could make more of an an effort to let people know what they are doing, find ways to make them more visible or do something that would get the message out that they are watching. Like in NY where they randomly check bags in the stations. It doesn't do much for catching bad guys, but it probably has some deterrent effect, which might be enough.
Right. Because random bag
Right. Because random bag searches would fly in the super liberal Bay Area. Do you realize that BART runs directly through two major politically active cities? The citizens of these cities squashed the idea of drug sniffing dogs on BART because they believed it "violated 4th amendment rights to unreasonable searches and seizures." These hippie liberals were up in arms because BART police made 13 arrests of crooks who were using BART as a drug trafficking vehicle. I guess they would prefer to run a high chance of sitting next to a drug dealer on there way home from their legitamate jobs. Oh wait... it was probably their marijuana dealers that were getting busted anyway...
I personally believe that there should be random bag searches on BART. Random bag checking somehow became accepted in New York, but it would be a snowball's chance in hell that it would happen here.
The only reason why NY is ok
The only reason why NY is ok with bag checking is because not to long ago a couple of jack A$$ desided to steal a couple of plains and crash them into a few buildings. The threat is very real for people on the east coast, checking a few of their rights at the door is a small price to pay to feel a bit safer.
The "hippie liberals" that you are refering to will do what they do best until (And I hope to god this never happens)the west cost gets their a$$ handed to them by some group that wants to make a statement by bringing down one of our bridges, Subway, a few buildings, whatever... Then everyone and their brother will be up in arms saying the same things that you are outlining.
How could bart justify
How could bart justify random bag searches when they spent so much money on the airport extension? Wouldn't that be a bit hypocritical?
Personally, I hate having to ride with people going and from the airports (SF & OAK). They always take up so much room with their baggage.
I remember this one Asian family of about six people. They took up ALL the space from the train door to the doors at the end of the car. That space would normally seat about 25 people. It wasn't during the commute, but it was a tell tall sign of potential problem.
Newsflash dummy, BART Police
Newsflash dummy, BART Police will not and can not protect you. All they can do for you is take a report and clean up the mess when some scumbag blows you away.
We need to learn how to use some vigilance and stand up on our own against scum, and not depend on lousy security/police.
Why do trains smell like ass
Why do trains smell like ass and feet?
Randall
Because of hobos and those
Because of hobos and those that don't practice proper hygene.
-M. Delgado
Yeah i saw these clowns on
Yeah i saw these clowns on MUNIS Tettttory
I was bout to tell them go back to BART and gett off my Tettitory
But I had my Laptop and I Did NOT want to get it broken during a scuffle Etc
cause its 187 on a Mutha F IG BART PIG lol
Next time I see em though it on
What? Is this English? You
What? Is this English? You have a laptop and cannot spell?
I saw some creatures on the
I saw some creatures on the Nature channel who were making those sounds. I think they called them "primative species".
-M. Delgado