Yee, Ammiano, Campos call for independent agency to watch BART police
By: Beth Winegarner
Examiner Staff Writer
January 8, 2009
SAN FRANCISCO — No independent oversight committee keeps tabs on BART’s police force, but that would change under a new law proposed by a trio of local and state lawmakers.
Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, and San Francisco Supervisor David Campos said Thursday they will introduce new legislation to create an independent review committee to oversee the transit agency’s officers. The committee, which would include civil rights and community leaders, among others, would have the power to conduct separate investigations into BART police activity, and respond to public complaints about BART officers’ conduct, Yee said.
The legislation was prompted by the Jan. 1 shooting death of Oscar Grant III at the Fruitvale BART station.
“It’s been nine days since the shooting, but we don’t know what exactly is going on,” Yee told The Examiner on Thursday. “The public empowers a police department with tremendous powers, [including] killing people in the name of the law, and citizens need to feel those powers are invested in a department that upholds people’s civil rights.”
Currently, BART activity is reviewed predominantly by the transit agency itself, a situation Yee, Ammiano and Campos described in a written statement as “a classic case of the fox guarding the henhouse.”
Ammiano urged similar legislation in 1996 in San Francisco, after two fatal shootings involving BART police, including the 1992 death of 19-year-old Jerrold Hall in Hayward and the 1996 death of Kevin Williams, 26, in Oakland. A BART officer in Oakland also shot and killed Bruce Edward Seward, 42, in 2001.
“Things were getting out of control,” Ammiano said Thursday of the past killings. “BART resisted [the oversight], saying it wasn’t necessary and there were too many jurisdictions.”
Ammiano cited San Francisco’s Office of Citizen Complaints and Police Commission with keeping good tabs on complaints associated with the conduct of Police Department officers — and said now that he is at the state level, it’s time to create more oversight for BART police.
Although the new legislation would be introduced next week, it must be considered by committees in both the Assembly and Senate, along with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, and may not see a final vote till June, Yee said. The committee wouldn’t be involved in investigating the most recent shooting, but could respond to other incidents.
“There have been complaints about racial profiling [among BART officers],” said Yee. “Those are the kinds of issues this commission would handle.”
