BART's surveillance reports go to its board Thursday

BART's Board of Directors takes up the district's surveillance paperwork on Thursday, Sept. 24, at 9 a.m. in the board room at 2150 Webster St. in Oakland.

Two things are on the table. The board is asked to approve BART's Annual Surveillance Report for fiscal year 2026, which is the district's yearly accounting of the surveillance technology it runs. And it is asked to approve surveillance impact reports for two building projects: the BART Police Department headquarters and the Union City at-grade pedestrian crossing.

Both impact reports cover closed-circuit television. BART says they are meant to be read alongside the camera use policy the board adopted on Oct. 25, 2018, which is still the rule that governs how the district records, keeps and shares footage.

That 2018 date is the point of the exercise. Under the surveillance technology ordinance BART's board adopted in 2018, the district has to put the documents in front of the public before the board can sign off on new surveillance. BART gave notice on Sept. 4 and posted the annual report and both impact reports. Print copies have been sitting at the Office of the District Secretary, on the 10th floor at 2150 Webster St., since Sept. 9.

For a Walnut Creek or Pleasant Hill rider, this is the paperwork behind the cameras on the platform. Neither project is local — one is a police building, the other a crossing at Union City station — but the annual report covers the district's surveillance technology as a whole, and the camera use policy it is measured against applies system-wide.

The meeting is in person with a teleconference option, and the Zoom link sits at the top of the agenda. Written public comments are logged as their own item on the agenda, so a comment sent in ahead of Thursday goes into the record. BART keeps a public participation guide for anyone who wants to speak.

The surveillance items are two of eight on a short agenda. The rest is routine: minutes from the Sept. 10 meeting, a review of directors' use of district property, a one-year extension of a financial advisory contract, a funding agreement with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission for the car replacement program, and a paratransit coordination agreement for the East Bay Paratransit Consortium.

The full agenda packet is posted on BART's Legistar page. The board meets on the second and fourth Thursdays from January through October, which puts the next meeting after this one on Oct. 8.