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BART personnel acknowledge that there are no foolproof preventive measures against a terrorist determined to disrupt the system or harm passengers. Except for the tubes and underground corridor, the system is too open. Nevertheless, the agency’s mission is to discourage antisocial behavior through carefully trained personnel and equipment. Thus, BART officials rely primarily upon a battery of cameras, police patrols, and psychological profiles as a collective first line of defense against would-be terrorist activity.

Security Training

The BART system operates with 175 sworn (armed) officers, all of whom have received police academy training. The system also employs approximately 300 unarmed station attendants. Although located only in the front cab of the train, operators are also trained to watch for suspicious people both on board trains and along the 95-mile track system.

Each officer employed by BART goes through four hours of training related to chemical/biological/nuclear/explosive terrorism threats. A core set of specialists takes another four hours of training. Every new employee must attend a four-hour training video as a condition of employment, and several attend conferences on terrorism and terrorism-related issues each year.

Psychological Profiles

The BART crisis team has periodic table-top meetings, at which members discuss potential crises, exercises, and possible responses. Once a year, the BART system conducts a simulated multicasualty terrorist or disaster activity with dozens of participants at a designated site. This drill is usually carried out early on a Sunday morning so as not to disrupt normal traffic.

As part of its interaction with residents and passengers, the agency maintains an awareness of any festering community issues as well as any threats that could occur because of unusually challenging events or activities. These include the Millennium, sports events, concerts, ethnic-related events, or other activities that bring unusually large numbers of individuals into the system over a brief time span.

Police Patrols

Police patrols circulate through the stations on a regular basis. The presence of these personnel is a valuable deterrent to would-be assailants. As part of their deterrence activities, agency personnel routinely intercept questionable people, those who appear out of place or out of sorts. Such individuals usually depart the area after such meetings.

Station attendants perform a second-tier level of ongoing surveillance. While they have neither the training nor coercive power of BART police, attendants serve as “eyes and ears” for any unusual activities. Often their mere appearance is enough to discourage antisocial activities, because they are eye witnesses to any unusual activities.

Stations

Stations contain emergency alarms inside each agent’s booth. In addition, white courtesy telephones are located near the elevators that take passengers to and from the platforms. At selected stations, fixed cameras remain focused on the telephones and elevator waiting areas at all times. Outside the stations, cameras and infrared spotlights placed in BART parking lots ensure continuous surveillance of these areas for any type of criminal activity.

Cameras

Remote-controlled cameras are directed from the Control Center in Oakland. These instruments monitor traffic at selected stations along the system, including the fare gates and platform areas. There are no cameras out on open track, because people do not congregate there, nor are there cameras along the transbay tube or any other underground areas in Oakland, San Francisco, and Berkeley. BART security personnel believe that underground track areas (not underground stations) are the most vulnerable spots in the system because of the lack of cameras and other detection equipment in relatively closed environments. BART has made some progress in obtaining funding to install equipment at the transbay tube entrances and other critical underground access points. Pedestrian alarms and closed-circuit television cameras should be installed soon.

Security on Trains

Each car contains an emergency door release for quick exit in the event of illegal or suspicious activity. Should passengers need to communicate with the train operator, they can use intercoms that are located in every car. Stations have public address systems to make announcements regarding train problems or issues.

Secured Perimeters

Chain-link and barbed-wire fences exist along all right-of-way areas and pedestrian bridges. In addition, BART security personnel have taken precautions against intrusion through the installation of roll-up doors, gates, stainless steel doors, and motorized shutters at all station entrances and exits. An intrusion alarm system protects all restricted gates and doors to the system, further reducing the likelihood of penetration. Shrubbery and landscaping are kept to a minimum at all points along the system, thereby minimizing the likelihood of hidden or concealed illegal activity. As a result of these combined efforts, unauthorized entry into the BART system is difficult to carry out without going through significant effort.

Vulnerability

The Control Center at Oakland manages, oversees, and troubleshoots all movements and related issues as well as the camera monitoring system. With just a few key personnel, the facility can oversee virtually all sensitive areas of

the system. Nevertheless, there is no backup to the Control Center, which is considered a weak spot for the system.

Without an alternative site, there is the pressing question of what would happen to BART in the event of a shutdown at the Oakland Control Center, whether it were caused by earthquake, flood, or any other disaster. Thus, the system’s nerve center remains its most vulnerable sector. This condition causes concern, if not profound anxiety, among agency officials.

Needs

The allocation of federal and state transportation funding in California is subject to planning and action by agencies composed of elected city and county officials. In the San Francisco Bay Area, each county’s Congestion Management Agency determines local priorities, and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission makes the final decisions for the region. Elected BART officials are not members of the voting boards of these agencies. Thus, vital funding decisions affecting BART depend on the good will and consideration of persons with potentially competing priorities. As a property- tax-funded special district, BART is constrained by Proposition 13 with respect to tax increases. Because of these limits and uncertainties, BART leaders hope the federal government will establish funding categories specifically for systems like BART.

Regardless of future assistance from the federal and/or state governments, one fact will remain clear: The safety of BART will only become more important as larger and larger numbers of Bay Area residents come to rely upon the transportation system.