Editorials

Officials upgrade security at BART

By Carole-Anne Elliott, Special to the Daily Planet
Friday October 12, 2001

Riders at BART’s three Berkeley stations had mixed reactions Thursday to the system’s new efforts to strengthen security.  

One wanted bag checks, others feared for their civil liberties more than an attack against BART and still others said it was impossible to make BART terrorist-proof. 

“Bombs are tiny now,” said UC Berkeley senior Jaya Owens.  

“Someone could come in with a backpack or a purse, and if they’re willing to die they can blow up the train. The police can’t do anything.” 

Nevertheless, BART officials tried by locking bathrooms, removing trash cans from subway platforms and switching elevator call buttons to station-agent control. The effort began Tuesday after U.S. planes bombed Afghanistan. Soon after the Sept. 11 attacks, BART increased police patrols through overtime. 

“We’re only doing this in response to the national alert,” said BART Public Affairs Director Mike Healy. “BART is not under any threat.” 

However, a patrol officer at the downtown Berkeley station said passengers call in every day with reports of suspicious bags and parcels, and that bomb threats have become “pretty routine” – as frequent as twice a day. 

BART police are concentrated at the West Oakland and Embarcadero stations to more thoroughly inspect entrances to the Transbay tube. The actual access doors to the tunnel are now staffed 24 hours a day, the officer said. 

Marc Janowitz, waiting in the downtown Berkeley station, sees more police as a potential threat to civil liberties. He expressed concern about BART police weapons being accidentally or inappropriately used in the event of “something going wrong,” and about “profiling of various kinds.” 

“I don’t have confidence that they are trained to adequately respond, or appropriately respond, or safely respond to an emergency that they might be called to,” Janowitz said. He added that he did not feel “that worried about being attacked in the current climate.” 

Michael Mitchell, waiting in the downtown Berkeley station, said he’d like to see more security. “There’s no one here to check if you even left a bag,” Mitchell said. “I don’t mind the inconvenience. Just make sure I’m riding safely.” 

But another man, traveling to Pleasanton with his infant daughter, said he was not at all nervous riding BART. He said he didn’t think the system would be a strategic target for terrorists.  

Other BART passengers said they don’t let themselves think about the possibility of being attacked. 

“I just won’t let myself become afraid,” said April Hamilton, who rides BART to her two part-time jobs every day and said she was more concerned about “regular, everyday street crime.”  

“Maybe it’s fatalism, but if a person is determined enough and they’re willing to take their own life, they can circumvent” any security measure, Hamilton said. 

“It can come from anything,” Owens said. “It can even come from someone getting a gun and shooting everyone around. So what is security now?”