BART Crisis Intervention Specialists
Program Name: Crisis Intervention Specialist Program Transit System: Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) Service Area: Five-county Bay Area — Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara Current Deployment: 20 Crisis Intervention Specialists Assessed Need: 100 specialists (per frontline workers) Organizational Home: Within BART structure, closely coordinated with BART Police Department Championed by: BART Deputy Chief of Police Ja’Son Scott
Why BART Built This
BART was experiencing what reporters described as “a discernible uptick in the number of people on trains and platforms experiencing homelessness or suffering from serious mental health issues.” [1]
BART Deputy Chief of Police Ja’Son Scott told KQED: “We didn’t have all the tools as police officers to deal with all the issues that you see in BART, and it’s not always necessary for a police officer” to be the first responder to these situations. [1] He championed the Crisis Intervention Specialist program from his position as transit police deputy chief.
How the Program Works
BART Crisis Intervention Specialists are trained in “conflict resolution and de-escalation techniques for people suffering from mental health, homelessness and substance-abuse issues.” They carry naloxone for opioid reversal. They facilitate connections to “social services and mental health nonprofits sprinkled throughout BART’s five-county service area.” [1]
Scott described the persistence model: success might come “on the first contact with a crisis intervention specialist” when “somebody is ready to seek help — but sometimes it might be the 20th contact.” [1]
One specialist described the time availability: “We can be more accessible to the public than officers can. If you need to talk to me for an hour, you have me for an hour. If I need to escort you on the train, and I need to take you to a resource that’s 30, 40 minutes away, I have the time to do that.” [1]
What the Program Has Produced
911 call reduction. A pilot at BART’s Embarcadero and Montgomery stations in downtown San Francisco, running from late July through December 2025, was associated with a 53% drop in safety-related 911 calls and a 67% drop in calls tied to violent incidents. These are program-reported figures from a single five-month pilot at two stations. A critical caveat: the pilot period coincided with a citywide 25.8% overall crime decrease, which means the reductions cannot be attributed exclusively to ambassador presence. [3]
System-wide crime reduction. BART reported a 41% year-over-year drop in overall crime in 2025. Chief Kevin Franklin credited “a multi-pronged safety strategy” that includes Crisis Intervention Specialists alongside other non-sworn personnel and sworn officers. [5] This is a system-wide figure, not an isolated measure of the CIS program’s contribution.
Service connection. Specialists document connections to social services, mental health resources, and housing programs across the five-county service area. Specific counts are not publicly available. [1]
Scott’s Championship: What the Record Shows
Scott publicly stated his own department lacked the tools to address what it was encountering. [1] Angela Averiett, then-BART Deputy Chief, stated: “Just them being in a train may stop someone from smoking crack or from defecating in a train car. I think it really makes people kind of think twice before they do something that’s illegal or harmful to themselves or others.” [2]
The Critical Limitation: Five-Fold Understaffing
A frontline specialist stated: “We are definitely needed. It’s just that there needs to be 100 of us, not just 20.” [6] The authorized deployment is 20 specialists across a five-county system. The five-fold gap between current deployment and assessed need has not been funded. [6]
The San Francisco Downtown Evidence
The pilot at BART’s Embarcadero and Montgomery stations, operated by the Downtown San Francisco Partnership using contractor Block by Block with private sponsors including Google, Visa, and Amazon, ran from late July through December 2025. The San Francisco Standard reported: [3]
53% drop in safety-related 911 calls at the two stations
67% drop in calls tied to violent incidents (fights, assaults, robberies)
82% of surveyed riders felt safer with ambassadors present
San Francisco Police Department response minutes dropped 58%
San Francisco Fire Department response minutes dropped 23%
Reporter Jillian D’Onfro wrote that the pilot was “helping downtown San Francisco get its groove back.” [3]
These figures are program-reported and come from a pilot at two stations over five months that coincided with a citywide 25.8% overall crime decrease. They do not establish system-wide impact and the attribution question remains open. [3]
Key Voices
BART Deputy Chief of Police Ja’Son Scott [1]: “We didn’t have all the tools as police officers to deal with all the issues that you see in BART, and it’s not always necessary for a police officer. It may be that on the first contact with a crisis intervention specialist somebody is ready to seek help. But sometimes it might be the 20th contact.”
Angela Averiett (then-BART Deputy Chief, now San Leandro Police Chief) [2]: “Just them being in a train may stop someone from smoking crack or from defecating in a train car. I think it really makes people kind of think twice before they do something that’s illegal or harmful to themselves or others.”
BART Crisis Intervention Specialist (on time capacity) [1]: “We can be more accessible to the public than officers can. If you need to talk to me for an hour, you have me for an hour. If I need to escort you on the train, and I need to take you to a resource that’s 30, 40 minutes away, I have the time to do that.”
BART Crisis Intervention Specialist (on staffing gap) [6]: “We are definitely needed. It’s just that there needs to be 100 of us, not just 20.”
What the Record Shows
BART’s record documents: law enforcement championship from the transit police deputy chief; a functional 20-specialist program that frontline workers describe as five times undersized; program-reported 911 call reduction data from a two-station pilot with an acknowledged confound; and a 45% overall crime decrease system-wide during the period the program has been operating, credited to a multi-pronged strategy. [1, 5, 6]
Sources
KQED (Matthew Green, May 14, 2024) — Deputy Chief Ja’Son Scott quotes, program rationale, 20th contact model, specialist escort quote: https://www.kqed.org/news/11985965/we-approach-in-peace-are-barts-outreach-efforts-to-help-people-in-crisis-working
Angela Averiett (then-BART Deputy Chief, now San Leandro Police Chief), sentinel effect quote: https://www.kqed.org/news/11985965/we-approach-in-peace-are-barts-outreach-efforts-to-help-people-in-crisis-working
The San Francisco Standard (Jillian D’Onfro, November 13, 2025) — Embarcadero/Montgomery pilot: 53%/67% 911 call reduction, 82% rider safer feeling, response time reductions (program-reported, five-month pilot, two stations; coincided with citywide 25.8% crime decrease): https://sfstandard.com/2025/11/13/downtown-sf-bart-station-ambassadors-pilot-extension/
BART news release (January 29, 2026) — overall crime data 2025; Chief Kevin Franklin multi-pronged strategy attribution: https://www.bart.gov/news/articles/2026/news20260129
KQED (Matthew Green, May 14, 2024) — BART Crisis Intervention Specialist frontline worker “100 vs. 20” quote: https://www.kqed.org/news/11985965/we-approach-in-peace-are-barts-outreach-efforts-to-help-people-in-crisis-working