BART names new police chief

Kenton Rainey, the person selected to lead the Bay Area Rapid Transit District's (BART) 296-member police force, officially took command as Chief of Police on Wednesday.

The naming of Rainey as chief comes after a five-month selection process, which included critical input from the public, a professional peer review panel, a community review panel and the BART Board of Directors.

"Chief Rainey embodies the change the community, the BART Board and the dedicated men and women who serve on the BART police force seek. He has a proven track record that exemplifies the values and goals that are critical to improving BART's policing services," said BART's GM Dorothy Dugger.

Dugger and the BART Police Department Review Committee have laid out clear goals for the new chief, — many of which the department has already started implementing — including:

• Increasing officer visibility on trains, in stations.

• Substantially exceeding POST training requirements to ensure officers' knowledge & skills stay current and well-versed.

• Building trust and establishing long-lasting partnerships with the community.

•  Ensuring policies, practices, procedures and best practices are regularly updated.

• Guiding the implementation of Citizen Oversight of BART Police, now pending approval in State Legislature (BART Board unanimously approved Citizen Oversight in August 2009).

Chief Rainey says his style is to lead by example. One of his first visible acts to show officers the importance of police visibility on trains and in stations is to ride BART to work in uniform as often as he can, including on Thursday, his second day on the job.