Evan Sernofisky, Michael Cabanatuan and Demian Bulwa report from San Francisco that a recent train killing exposes the large security gap – that many of the train cameras are decoys and don’t work.
BART police investigating the weekend killing of a passenger on a train in Oakland have no onboard video of the crime, even though the transit agency had what appear to be surveillance cameras just feet from where the suspect shot the victim at close range, The Chronicle has learned.
Although all BART cars have what look like cameras mounted to their ceilings, the vast majority of the devices are decoys incapable of capturing footage, BART officials conceded Wednesday. And some of the actual cameras are broken, two police sources said.
Cameras are used to deter criminals, but that would require working cameras, beyond just the platforms and station lobbies. Without working cameras some crimes and incidents are not preserved and for many train riders, the use dummy cameras is not common knowledge.
It is time for all train operators to get rid of the dummy cameras and help stop crime, preserve the film, should something occur. A few dollars spent today, could help deter the time in the future.
