BART robberies climb 45% over last year, figures show

Photo: Noah Berger, Special To The Chronicle A train approaches the Coliseum BART station on Tuesday, April 25,...

Robberies aboard BART trains and in its stations have climbed 45 percent over the past year, according to crime statistics released Friday by the transit agency.

Data provided by BART after a formal request by The Chronicle show the number of robberies occurring on the system during the first three months of the year jumped from 49 in 2016 to 71 in 2017.

While robberies are up, BART officials stress that their overall crime rates are low. Factoring in ridership, 1.6 robberies per million trips took place in 2016, and projections show that’s likely to rise to 1.7 per million this year, they say.

“We just want to make the point that crime is low and we serve so many people without incident,” said spokeswoman Alicia Trost.

The Chronicle’s request for BART’s crime figures followed last Saturday night’s train robbery by a swarm of juveniles, but the chilling robbery is not included in the data. The robbery occurred about 9:30 p.m. when a group of as many as 60 youths leaped over the fare gates at Coliseum Station, dashed up the stairs, boarded multiple cars of a Dublin/Pleasanton train and robbed and beat some passengers.

Seven people were robbed in the attack — six on the train and one on the platform — and two were hit in the face. By the time police arrived, about three minutes later, the mob was fleeing the station and scattering in different directions, BART officials said.

BART police made their first arrest in the case early Friday afternoon, taking a boy into custody. They would not release his age or other identifying information, including his city of residence or where the arrest took place.

Police have identified several more suspects and obtained warrants for their arrests, said Lt. Terence McCarty, acting deputy chief of the BART Police Department. More arrests are forthcoming, he said.

McCarty said police were able to identify suspects and obtain warrants because of high-quality images captured by recently installed video cameras inside some of the cars invaded by the youths. BART agreed to outfit all trains with working cameras after a Chronicle story last year revealed most of the cameras were decoys incapable of recording video.

Not surprisingly, the crime statistics from Jan. 1 to March 31 show that Coliseum Station — long a crime hot spot among BART stations — had the most robberies of any of BART’s 46 stations. Through the end of March, 13 robberies had taken place at the station followed by nine at Bay Fair Station, six at Fruitvale Station and four at Richmond and Rockridge stations.

Even before last Saturday’s incident, BART police had recognized a surge in robberies, including group robberies, on the system and stepped up patrols with officers working overtime and focusing on Oakland stations, where most of the upswing was taking place. Since March, 19 individuals have been arrested in connection with group robberies at BART, McCarty said Friday.

On Thursday, acting Chief Jeffrey Jennings issued an emergency staffing order to put more officers on trains and in stations beginning Monday. To accomplish it, Jennings canceled one regular day off during the week for each officer to put more officers on trains and in stations beginning May 1. Such orders are typically reserved for natural disasters or large events such as protests. Extra officers will patrol at Coliseum, Fruitvale and Bay Fair stations.

McCarty said the staffing order is a sign that BART police are taking the swarm of group robberies seriously. “We’re completely focused on this issue,” he said.

Officers will focus their attention on stations that have shown bursts in criminal activity, especially robberies, McCarty said. Coliseum Station has long been a leader in robberies among stations.

Last year, 32 robberies were reported at Coliseum Station, compared with 17 reported at Fruitvale Station, which had the second most. Coliseum also recorded the most robberies in the BART system in 2015, with 16.

BART police plan to crack down on the robbers, who usually grab cell phones and, less frequently, purses and bags. But McCarty urged passengers to do their part by paying attention to their surroundings, especially near doors and when trains are pulling into stations. Robbers, sometimes working in groups, he said, look for people engrossed in their phones, snatch them as a train pulls into a station, then flee.

Michael Cabanatuan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ctuan