A safety boost for BART as the transit agency says new numbers are showing that overall crime is decreasing systemwide. Velena Jones reports.
BART says new numbers are showing that overall crime is decreasing systemwide.
BART officials said that new numbers show overall crime is down systemwide by 15% and violent crime has decreased from 263 to 236 incidents compared to the same time last year. Property crime is also down double digits.
Commuters like Lucy Deju said they are feeling safer using the system.
“It’s relatively safe. Sometimes, when I have a late-night class, it could get a little sketch. But, in my experience, it is not that bad,” she said.
Commuters NBC Bay Area spoke to on Wednesday said they think increased ridership is playing a role in the safer ride.
“When you have more people in the system, it feels like some of the challenges aren’t as prevalent,” said Ben Lazzareschi, a BART commuter.
BART said ridership is on the rise, noting it saw the biggest post pandemic spike last month. While some riders said they're seeing the change but many also note there's still room for improvement.
“You still see people jumping gates and you’ll have sometimes people that are doing some kind of not great things. But I got to say I give the BART police a lot of credit,” Lazzareschi said.
BART credited the safety improvements to an increase in officers both on trains and in their stations. A year and a half ago, they doubled the number of sworn and civilian positions on train patrol.
Get a weekly recap of the latest San Francisco Bay Area housing news. >Sign up for NBC Bay Area’s Housing Deconstructed newsletter.
“This is what is bringing back our riders to the system and that is a key part of addressing everything at BART. And so, this is something that we are sustaining,” BART police Chief Kevin Franklin.
Franklin also credits new fare gates currently being installed at all stations , while also acknowledging there's more work to be done. Franklin says he's still working to fill 18 vacancies and looking at future staffing increases.
“We are working really hard to be responsive to the feedback that we are getting from our passengers and employees to increase the visible presence in our system,” he said.
