BART official criticized for memo on withholding crime facts

A recent memo from a top BART official to the agency’s board of directors ignited criticism. A recent memo from a top BART official to the agency’s board of directors ignited criticism. Photo: Sam Wolson / Sam Wolson / Special To The Chronicle Photo: Sam Wolson / Sam Wolson / Special To The Chronicle Image 1 of / 22 Caption Close BART official criticized for memo on withholding crime facts 1 / 22 Back to Gallery

A top BART official opened the door for a fresh round of criticism Monday when she explained the transit agency’s decision to withhold information about criminal misconduct on the system by pointing at what she called the media’s “disproportionate elevation” of crimes that “unfairly affect and characterize riders of color.”

Two BART board members took issue with Assistant General Manager Kerry Hamill’s reasoning, which they said went on unnecessary tangents and further clouded the transit agency’s commitment to transparency.

In a July 7 memo to BART’s board of directors obtained by The Chronicle, Hamill referred to the latest crime on BART that attracted widespread attention: the snatching of a woman’s cell phone about a week earlier by a group of at least 10 juveniles at Coliseum Station.

Although only a cell phone was stolen, the incident was similar to an earlier violent robbery involving a group of juveniles at the same station. BART officials did not immediately widely publicize either robbery. When the June 30 cell phone theft occurred, BART was no longer issuing daily police logs of crimes.

In her memo, which was not intended to be made public, Hamill wrote that much of the criticism leveled at BART for refusing to provide detailed descriptions of crime on the system “was generated for the benefit of media themselves.” She also said crime on BART is much lower than in several of the surrounding communities it serves.

BART Director Joel Keller and Board President Rebecca Saltzman said Hamill made some valid points, but they took issue with her tone.

“The memo was regrettable,” Keller said. “Transparency trumps everything else. To not be willing to release information to the public because we think we know better what the public can handle is a mistake in my mind.”

Saltzman said the agency should not release video of crimes involving juveniles because the practice is forbidden by California law. However, she said, it is crucial for BART to make information about such crimes readily available and the memo did not reinforce that notion.

“I think what we have to do is make as much as we can available to the media and the public and balance that with everything else that’s going on,” Saltzman said.

The juveniles in the June 30 incident were detained, photographed and released after the victim could not identify the main perpetrator, and the victim got her phone back thanks to a heroic 62-year-old security guard who took a beating in the process.

The Chronicle learned about the theft from the victim days after the incident. The newspaper and other outlets withheld the races of the suspected juveniles, but Hamill criticized the media reports as filled with “sweeping generalizations” that perpetuate prejudice.

BART has been flooded with a slew of racist emails and phone calls suggesting the high-profile robberies were the work of young African Americans.

The agency’s police department suddenly stopped issuing a daily log of crimes on the system soon after BART’s new police chief, Carlos Rojas, was sworn in on May 24.

Until then, the logs had been emailed to about 300 people and news agencies, providing them with descriptions of each crime. The logs were replaced by an online mapping website, CrimeMapping.com, which offers little information.

The June 30 robbery at Coliseum Station, for example, is described with minimal details as a strong-arm robbery.

Director Nick Josefowitz said it doesn’t matter as much how BART reports crime to the public. The important thing, he said, is making sure riders feel free from harm on BART, a sense of safety that for many has been shattered by an increase in robberies.

Josefowitz cited recently installed working cameras on every train car and the strategic deployment of BART police officers at troubled stations as recent steps in the right direction.

He also provided data on BART’s average emergency response times. For the second quarter of 2017, the critical response times had not met BART’s goal of about five minutes, but they were just above it and have been decreasing.

Taylor Huckaby, a spokesman for BART, said Hamill would not be available for comment. He said the switch to the mapping system was driven by Rojas, adding that because the data are uploaded automatically online, it saves time.

Michael Bodley is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mbodley@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @michael_bodley