BART PD now hiring Crisis Intervention Specialists and Transit Ambassadors
The BART Police Department has agreed to a three-year extension of the labor contracts with the BART Police Officers’ Association and the BART Police Managers’ Association. The BART Board of Directors approved the contracts at its meeting on Thursday. The agreements will help BPD to fully staff its new Progressive Policing and Community Engagement Bureau by adding new classifications to the unions, including the Crisis Intervention Specialists and the Transit Ambassadors, as well as by providing officers assigned to the bureau with an increased 10% special assignment pay.
“This agreement is the result of good faith negotiations on all sides and is an essential step in the process of achieving my vision for safety at BART,” said BART Police Chief Ed Alvarez. “The contract recognizes our current financial challenges while making it possible to fully staff and support our progressive policing initiatives.”
Now that the contract has been approved by the BART Board, BPD will move immediately to begin the hiring process for Crisis Intervention Specialists (CIS), which will require a background in social work, to fully staff the Progressive Policing Bureau. CIS positions will be responsible for performing outreach to individuals experiencing crisis, homelessness, mental health, and substance use. The CIS will engage and establish relationships with the homeless community to provide supportive services in collaboration with behavioral health and social services organizations. Qualified candidates can learn more by going to BART.gov/jobs.
The contract also provides for the hiring of additional Transit Ambassadors. The new bureau will eventually include 20 Crisis Intervention Specialists, 10 Transit Ambassadors, and 12 sworn officers.
The agreement includes no across-the-board pay increases in the first year of the extension and ties potential raises in the second and third years to increases in ridership. No wage hikes will occur if ridership does not return to at least 60% of pre-pandemic levels. If ridership reaches 100% of pre-pandemic numbers, the highest possible pay increase officers would get is 2% in Fiscal Year ’24, and 2.5% in Fiscal Year ’25.
The agreement builds upon the success of the previous labor contracts, which put BPD salaries on par with other law enforcement agencies in the Bay Area. This new agreement will keep BPD competitive as it strives to recruit officers. The previous labor contracts had been scheduled to expire in June 2022.