City To Help Keep BART Civic Center Station Safe, Clean

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — San Francisco Mayor Mark Farrell and Police Chief William Scott unveiled a new plan to address public safety and health concerns at San Francisco's Civic Center BART station.

Announcing a joint partnership between the city of San Francisco and BART, Farrell said the partnership means extra San Francisco police officers, in addition to more BART officers, will be at the station.

Additionally, the plan aims to connect homeless people at the station as well as those with mental health and substance abuse issues with health providers and social services.

"The Civic Center BART station is at the heart of San Francisco. It's the doorway to our city government. It is the doorway to UN Plaza, Market Street, Mid-market and our growing downtown," Farrell said. "It has unfortunately become a glimpse into the homelessness and behavioral health conditions we have here in San Francisco. It is not safe and it is not acceptable anymore."

As part of the plan, San Francisco officers will dedicate an additional 290 officer-hours a week at the station and surrounding area. BART officers will expand their patrol staffing levels by 78 hours a week, which is a 30 percent increase above normal levels.

"The idea that each system, or each department, is responsible for separate law enforcement duties on these platforms cannot be a barrier for us working together," San Francisco Police Chief William Scott said. "The only concern we have is that people taking public transport feel safe and have a clean environment and that they're able to go to and from where they need to go to without worry and concern."

BART Police Chief Carlos Rojas said, "This is one team. It doesn't matter if it's the San Francisco patch or the BART patch, we're in it together.

"We do cover a very large area and there isn't a better partner than the city and county of San Francisco," Rojas said.

BART will also coordinate with the city's newly established Healthy Streets Operation Center, a multi-agency initiative to address homelessness and street behavior issues.

According to Barbara Garcia, director of the San Francisco Department of Public Health, the new strategy will help expand ongoing efforts by the department in providing healthcare, outreach, case management, substance abuse care, crisis response and needle pick-up.

Nick Josefowitz, a member of BART's board of directors, said, "The problems we're seeing above ground, like homelessness, are really coming underground to our stations. And BART isn't a social service agency. BART
isn't a public health agency and the only way that we can really come to grips with these problems is through the collaboration with the city of San Francisco and the other cities and counties we serve."

— Bay City News; Image via Shutterstock