Many of you may be seeing more BART police officers on your trains. 

The department has increased patrols because of three deadly stabbings that took place in less than a week last month. 

Gary Gee was chief of BART police for decades and says a big difference from when he was in charge ot now is the amount of staffing. 

“In my 37 years with the BART Police Department, I don’t believe there was any two-year period where we experienced that sort of violence,” Gee said. 

Three deadly stabbings in 5 days, and now BART police are in emergency staffing mode, adding more officers to BART trains.

But retired BART police chief Gee says that’s not necessarily the answer. 

“If passengers see officers on the train, they are going to feel safer but as far as the incidents that have occurred in the last few weeks, even having an officer at each of those stations and aboard the trains where these incidents occurred wouldn’t necessarily prevent those random acts of violence,” said Gee.

BART passengers say they see the officers but aren’t feeling any different. 

“Out of the last three times I went twice a good amount of officers like maybe 6 or 7 officers they were in a group just talking to each other,” said BART passenger Joseph Pineda. 

Some says this is just a temporary solution, one that won’t last. 

“I think they are trying to make a move to make it safer but knowing how the system works it’s probably just they’re like they’re acting like they’re going to make it better but really not make a change after everyone forgets about it,” Pineda added. 

Officers are working 6 days a week, and Gee says that’s just too much. 

“I believe after a 2-3 week period [we’re] going to see a negative impact on productivity and morale. Officers are going to get tired and they’re not used to doing these many hours,” Gee said.

The issue of course is that it seems to be the only answer right now, because hiring new officers means putting them through a year of training, according to Gee, which means it will take some time before adding more staff. 

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