BART sees drop in system crime, shortened response time from officers
The Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) Police Department (PD) released its monthly report showing that crime dropped on BART systems throughout the first seven months of 2025.
The number of violent crimes reported on BART declined from 203 incidents for the first seven months of 2024 to 130 incidents this year. Property crimes also fell from 1,091 for the first seven months of 2024 to 547 this year. All the latest crime numbers can be found in the July chief’s report.
The agency says the decrease in crime comes as BART PD remains focused on maintaining a highly visible safety presence in the system. At the same time, BART has accelerated the installation of next generation fare gates. Now 48 of BART’s 50 stations have new high-tech gates, which the agency notes are proving to be a strong deterrent against fare evasion and other unwanted behavior. BART says it is well on track to meet its goal to have next generation fare gates at all stations by the end of this year. Maintaining a visible safety presence and installing new gates are both key components of BART’s Safe and Clean Plan to put the everyday concerns of riders first.
Other highlights from the chief’s report:
- Robberies plummeted from 126 for the first seven months of 2024 to 37 this year.
- Only one cellphone robbery was reported for the entire system in July. That follows zero cellphone robberies in June.
- Auto burglaries fell from 449 last year to 162 in 2025.
BART PD notes its highly visible safety presence is making it possible for officers to get to incidents more quickly. The average emergency response time for July was 4 minutes, 21 seconds. That’s below BART PD’s goal of five minutes and one of the fastest response times for any law enforcement agency in the Bay Area.