page_title: Bay Area Rapid Transit Police Department
section_title: Operations
hierarchical_section_title: Bay Area Rapid Transit Police Department / Operations
caption_attribution_description: Two BART Police cars in the parking lot of the North Berkeley BART station
context_page_description: The BART Police, officially the Bay Area Rapid Transit Police Department, is the transit police agency of the BART rail system in the U.S. state of California. The department has approximately three hundred police personnel including over two-hundred sworn peace officers. The chief, Ed Alvarez commands the agency's law enforcement, parking, and community relations services. BART Police participates in a mutual aid agreement with other Bay Area law enforcement agencies. In 2011 and 2012 the department came under national scrutiny due to several officers involved in fatalities of the rail system's patrons.
  When terrorism began to be treated as a more active threat after the September 11 attacks, BART increased its emphasis on infrastructure protection. The police department hosts drills and participates in counter-terrorism working groups. The agency has an officer assigned full-time to the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force. Furthermore, a command officer is designated as a mutual-aid, counter-terrorism, and homeland-security liaison. BART's police dogs are certified in explosives detection.
context_section_description: The BART police have various positions in their ranks. including peace officers, community service officers, dispatchers, revenue protection guards, and administrative staff. Most officers are assigned to patrol, and others are assigned to special operations teams.
  The department's decentralized patrol bureau is divided into five police zones. Each has its own headquarters and field office. The police department has: criminal investigation, personnel and training, record, warrant, crime analysis, traffic administration, property and evidence, and revenue protection divisions. There is also the office of the chief which is composed of an internal affairs and a budget coordination office.
  Further specialties for the police department include: field training officer, K9, SWAT, bicycle patrol, background investigator, crime analyst, administrative traffic officer, FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) investigator, and undercover anti-vandalism and special-enforcement teams.
  The agency has police facilities in: Castro Valley, Colma, Concord, El Cerrito, Hayward, Oakland, Pittsburg, Pleasanton, San Bruno, San Francisco, San Leandro, and Walnut Creek.
caption: Two BART Police cars in the parking lot of the North Berkeley BART station.
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