BART PD reports surge in arrests as more officers patrol trains

Felony arrests on BART increased 62% last year compared with 2022. The jump comes as BART PD has been aggressively recruiting new officers and ensuring safety staff are riding more trains to increase their visible safety presence. BART officers recorded 726 felony arrests in 2023 compared with 448 for 2022. Along with those arrests 49 illegal firearms were seized in 2023 compared with 40 the previous year. It’s the most guns BART PD has recovered in a year since at least 2003. BART PD has already recovered a dozen firearms so far this year. “These latest arrest and gun seizure numbers are a credit to all the hard work of our officers,” said BART Police Chief Kevin Franklin. “Since we started deploying more patrol officers to ride trains we have seen an impact, and our riders are telling us they notice the difference.” In the latest Quarterly Performance Review the percentage of riders who reported seeing BART PD on their trip reached a record high of 20%. That’s up from the previous record of 17% the previous quarter. The last two quarters have been the first in BART’s history where the percentage of riders who reported seeing BART PD exceed the department’s official goal of 12%. BART has been working to implement its Safe and Clean Plan which focuses on boosting the visible safety presence in the system and increasing staffing to clean trains and stations. BART PD has also been advancing an aggressive officer recruitment campaign to fill its remaining vacancies. This effort has been boosted by a 22% salary increase for officers, which was approved by the BART Board to ensure BART PD remains competitive with other law enforcement agencies in the Bay Area. Anyone interested in joining BART PD can learn more at joinbartpd.com. (Examples of recently seized guns)