BART to replace decoy cameras on trains with real ones

A fake security camera can be seen with a flashing red light as people ride a BART train headed towards Pittsburg/Bay Point station from San Francisco Jan. 13, 2015 near Oakland, Calif. A fake security camera can be seen with a flashing red light as people ride a BART train headed towards Pittsburg/Bay Point station from San Francisco Jan. 13, 2015 near Oakland, Calif. Photo: Leah Millis, The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Leah Millis, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 8 Caption Close BART to replace decoy cameras on trains with real ones 1 / 8 Back to Gallery

Days after acknowledging that most of the security cameras on BART trains were decoys but defending their use, transit agency officials said Wednesday they will phase out the fakes and replace them with working cameras.

The announcement came less than a week after The Chronicle revealed that the vast majority of what appeared to be cameras mounted on the ceilings of BART trains were dummies intended to fool riders, and that as a result the agency failed to capture video footage of a Jan. 9 fatal shooting of a man aboard a train at the West Oakland Station.

“There are already real cameras on some of the train cars,” said Alicia Trost, a BART spokeswoman. “Now we’re making sure every single camera works.”

BART officials are working out the details, Trost said, including the type of technology, the schedule for outfitting cars with cameras and how much the conversion will cost.

Currently, each train car has a set of four devices that appear to be cameras. But Chronicle reporters who walked the length of several BART trains last week found that roughly three-fourths were dummies. Even some of the actual cameras in many BART trains don’t work, according to police sources familiar with the matter.

“It won’t happen immediately,” Trost said of the change, “but we wanted to make sure our riders knew we were making this commitment today.”

The lack of working surveillance cameras was revealed after BART police investigating the shooting in Oakland were left with no video recording from the train.

Killing still unsolved

The homicide remains unsolved. BART police, four days after the killing, released photos of the suspect that were captured by station cameras as he entered the system in Pittsburg and as he allegedly fled the West Oakland Station.

The victim was identified as 19-year-old Carlos Misael Funez-Romero of Antioch. The relationship between the two men, if any, as well as the motive for the killing, remain unknown.

Police said the gunman fired multiple shots at Funez-Romero from close range on a crowded, San Francisco-bound BART car as it pulled into the West Oakland Station. The suspect, a black man who is tall and thin with close-cut hair, appeared to be wearing a dark green jacket with a hood, a backpack, jeans and beige work-style boots.

The use of dummy cameras is common in private security but unusual among transit systems. And while BART’s use of the decoys was an open secret at the agency, many officials, including some board members, were unaware of it.

BART Police Chief Kenton Rainey initially defended the use of decoy cameras, and said the on-train surveillance cameras were a small part of a robust, multilayered security system that includes more modern cameras at stations that can be monitored by police in real time.

The agency is replacing its entire fleet of trains, and officials said every car in the new fleet will be equipped with cutting-edge cameras producing footage that can be watched live from a central monitoring station. Those cars are expected to arrive between 2017 and 2021.

Changes since 1998

A lot has changed in the way cameras are designed and used since BART started installing them inside trains in 1998, an effort aimed chiefly at stopping graffiti and other vandalism. Eighty were initially installed in a pilot program, and more were added in 2000. While some of the cameras were upgraded, the decoys were never replaced with operating cameras.

Trost said Wednesday that BART is committed to equipping its existing trains as well as its new fleet with working cameras.

“Now both our existing and future cars will have security cameras,” she said.

On Wednesday evening, commuters said they support the switch to real cameras.

“We pay money every day to ride BART. They should have working cameras,” said Brandon Loebbecke of Berkeley. “It makes a difference to have real cameras. It might make people feel safer and keep people from committing crimes.”

Fremont resident Sanjay Garbe said real cameras make sense but added that “there is no way for us to verify we have the real cameras.”

Still, he suspects BART won’t try to pull a fast one. “If another incident happens and they don’t have video, there will be a huge outcry against BART.” he said.

Chronicle staff writer J.K. Dineen contributed to this report.

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