When it comes to panhandling, BART largely looks the...

Whether it’s dancers parading through the trains and passing the hat or women holding babies begging in the stations, panhandling — even aggressive panhandling — is pretty much a fact of life on BART.

And the BART Board of Directors appears content with keeping it that way.

Just look at the numbers:

• BART police have responded to 340 calls related to panhandling so far this year. Only two resulted in citations.

• Last year, BART police responded to 958 panhandling calls and issued only three citations.

BART’s own Customer Code of Conduct, adopted in 2013, prohibits anyone from begging or soliciting “by accosting another person.” Aggressive panhandling is also illegal under state law.

However, the issue of what constitutes “aggressive” panhandling and how police should react when faced with it is another matter.

For example, BART police have been instructed that panhandling for “gratuitous donations” — just asking for money — is a form of free speech and protected under the First Amendment.

“In order for an officer to take an enforcement action, a panhandler has to be overly aggressive or accost someone,” BART spokesman Chris Filippi said.

Examples of aggressive panhandling in the BART police manual include:

• The use of overt or veiled threats.

• The invasion of personal space by cornering, blocking or following others.

• Touching others in an effort to solicit.

• Reaching or leaning across a seated BART customer to solicit, or intimidating or obstructing vehicular or pedestrian traffic to solicit.

“In those cases, an officer must witness what happened or a victim must be willing to make a statement to the officer and be willing to go to court,” Filippi said. “BART police experience has been that when most people call an officer over someone panhandling they’re satisfied to have the officer show up and resolve the matter,” Filippi said.

“Riders typically don’t want to pursue it further,” he added.

BART Police Officers Association President Keith Garcia added: “Even if you have all those factors, our policy still directs us to ‘utilize social services’ rather than arrest the offender. That’s why officers are more likely to eject an offender than make an arrest.”

After the stabbing death of 18-year-old Nia Wilson on the MacArthur Station platform last summer, BART General Manager Grace Crunican offered up an array of safety measures for the board to consider, including a ban on all panhandling in the paid areas.

The suggestions have been met with silence by board members.

“There are several board members who are opposed to any action on panhandling that would mean criminalizing the behavior,” as many of the panhandlers are poor, Director Robert Raburn said.

“Polarizing people about nonaggressive panhandling does not help BART succeed with our biggest problems,” board President Bevan Dufty said.

Instead, the board is looking for ways to reduce fare evasions and increase the presence of public safety officers while at the same getting more teams to zero in on helping people get out of panhandling by finding them shelter and help with problems such as drug addiction.

“The panhandlers on the train are bothersome to some passengers and not to others,” Director Debora Allen said. “One afternoon I watched dancers board at Embarcadero, turn on the music, do their routine and walk through the train with a hat, pausing for a second next to each person. They said nothing, just moved the hat around quickly with a smile.”

An elderly couple sitting next to Allen put $5 in the hat. When Allen later asked them what prompted the donation, “the man said they feared the consequences if they didn’t.”

However, a young person who put a buck in the hat told Allen he made the contribution because the dancers were entertaining.

The dancers could have been cited for loud music — also against BART rules — but making a complaint would have meant finding an officer and by then the dancers likely would be gone.

“Most riders just want to get off the train and move on with their day,”’ Allen said.

Besides freelance entertainers passing the hat, there are “napkin sellers,” people who sell packets of facial tissues, and the “ladies with babies,” who elicit sympathy from BART passengers by holding infants as they panhandle.

But Allen said it’s time for BART to revisit the issue.

“I will propose something later this summer if it seems like there is a path to overcome legal challenges and there is support from other board members,” she said. “The challenge will be how does BART enforce such a thing. It’s worth researching.

“But the key is whether there are five votes on the board,” Allen said of the nine-member body.

San Francisco Chronicle columnist Phil Matier appears Sundays and Wednesdays. Matier can be seen on the KPIX-TV morning and evening news. He 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