Photo: Jessica Christian / The Chronicle 2018 Photo: Jessica Christian / The Chronicle 2018

BART’s early morning train sweeps in search of fare evaders at San Francisco’s Embarcadero Station appear to be showing results. And given the lack of objections, the transit agency is expanding the program.

“The feedback has been positive, and the results have been good,” BART board President Bevan Dufty said. “People appear to be appreciative of the effort.”

BART records show a 5% drop in calls reporting quality-of-life incidents like panhandling, disorderly conduct and indecent exposure in November, compared with the same month last year. Quality-of-life calls were down 7.5% in October compared with 2018.

The sweeps began in September. BART fare inspectors and police officers board the first 13 eastbound trains that pass through Embarcadero Station, the last San Francisco stop before the trains cross to the East Bay. All passengers are checked to make sure they’ve paid.

Riders unable to show proof of payment are escorted out of the station, but they aren’t issued the normal citation, which carries a $75 fine.

BART police estimate that, on average, the sweeps result in 75 to 100 people a day being removed from the morning commute trains.

The sweeps start at about 5:15 a.m. and take three to five minutes each. They wrap up at 6 a.m. so the morning commute trains aren’t delayed. But given the results, BART is extending the sweeps to later trains when it can perform them without backing up the commute runs.

It’s part of an effort to stem the millions of dollars fare evaders bleed from the system every year, a loss BART estimates at $25 million to $30 million.

In addition to the lost revenue, BART says many of the fare evaders are homeless, which is a sore point with riders who are increasingly concerned about their personal safety on the trains.

While the San Francisco Coalition of the Homeless has objected to the homeless being ejected without much help finding services, the sweeps have been largely free of controversy because the violators aren’t cited.

BART Director Janice Li, who helped lead a recent “eat-in” demonstration at Embarcadero Station to protest a BART police stop of an African American man for eating a sandwich on the platform in Contra Costa County — and who does not consider fare evasion a priority problem — observed the sweeps recently.

“For the most part, there were no issues,” Li said.

The police were “not super-aggressive,” and everyone on the train is checked, “so there is no targeting,” she said.

The question of profiling came to light recently when The Chronicle reported that of 12,207 citations doled out from July 18, 2018, to June 30, 2019, roughly 46% were given to people who identified themselves to BART proof-of-payment officers as African American, BART data show. Passengers who identified as white accounted for 18% of citations, while 15% went to Latinos and 4% went to Asians.

Li is concerned that homeless people are put being put back on Market Street without any offer of services.

BART Director Debora Allen, who observed the sweeps as well and who has been calling for an increased enforcement of BART quality-of-life rules, said she also supports the sweeps.

And like Li, Allen is concerned about the lack of services being offered once the evaders are ejected.

“San Francisco needs to partner with BART to provide social service professionals to the people we escort back to street level,” Allen said.

Otherwise, Allen said, the sweeps serve only as a delay for many of the evaders, who may jump the gates later in the day for “their daily excursion on BART.”

But despite those reservations, directors appear to be on board with the sweeps continuing.

At the same time, BART is installing taller railings and other barriers at other stations to keep people from avoiding paying the fare.

“If it’s promising, I definitely would like to sustain the effort,” BART Director Robert Raburn said.

San Francisco Chronicle columnist Phil Matier appears Sundays and Wednesdays. Matier can be seen on the KGO-TV morning and evening news and can also be heard on KCBS radio Monday through Friday at 7:50 a.m. and 5:50 p.m. Got a tip? Call 415-777-8815, or email pmatier@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @philmatier