Bay Area Rapid Transit Police Department in the context of "Transit police"

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⭐ Core Definition: Bay Area Rapid Transit Police Department

The BART Police (BARTPD), officially the Bay Area Rapid Transit Police Department, is the transit police agency of the BART rail system in the U.S. state of California. The department has approximately three hundred police personnel, including over two hundred sworn peace officers. The chief, Kevin Franklin commands the agency's law enforcement, parking, and community relations services. BART Police participates in a mutual aid agreement with other Bay Area law enforcement agencies. In 2011 and 2012 the department came under national scrutiny due to several officers involved in fatalities of the rail system's patrons.

When terrorism began to be treated as a more active threat after the September 11 attacks, BART increased its emphasis on infrastructure protection. The police department hosts drills and participates in counter-terrorism working groups. The agency has an officer assigned full-time to the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force. Furthermore, a command officer is designated as a mutual-aid, counter-terrorism, and homeland-security liaison. BART's police dogs are certified in explosives detection.

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Bay Area Rapid Transit Police Department in the context of Occupy Oakland

Occupy Oakland refers to a collaboration and series of demonstrations in Oakland, California, that started in October 2011. As part of the Occupy movement, protesters have staged occupations, most notably at Frank H. Ogawa Plaza in front of Oakland City Hall.

Occupy Oakland began as a protest encampment at Frank H. Ogawa Plaza on October 10, 2011. Protesters renamed it Oscar Grant Plaza after a young man who was fatally shot by Bay Area Rapid Transit Police in 2009. The encampment was cleared out by multiple law enforcement agencies on October 25, 2011. The movement also helped spur the November 2, 2011, Oakland General Strike that shut down the Port of Oakland. Police again cleared the protest encampment at Frank Ogawa Plaza on November 14, 2011. Other protest encampments were created and subsequently dismantled by law enforcement. The last encampment at Snow Park was cleared on November 21, 2011. Occupy Oakland then had no physical presence in any public space overnight in the city.

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Bay Area Rapid Transit Police Department in the context of Oscar Grant

Oscar Grant III was a 22-year-old black man who was killed in the early morning hours of New Year's Day 2009 by BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle in Oakland, California. Responding to reports of a fight on a crowded Bay Area Rapid Transit train returning from San Francisco, BART Police officers detained Grant and several other passengers on the platform at the Fruitvale BART Station. BART officer Anthony Pirone kneed Grant in the head and forced Grant to lie face down on the platform. Officer Johannes Mehserle drew his pistol and shot Grant. Grant was rushed to Highland Hospital in Oakland and pronounced dead later that day. The events were captured on bystanders' mobile phones. Owners would then upload the footage to YouTube. Both protests and riots took place in the following days.

Some of the other passengers on the train, along with Grant's girlfriend Sophina, were able to break up the fight. Shortly afterward, the train conductor announced to the passengers that the police had been contacted and were on their way to the station at which they were stopped. As the passengers began to exit the train, Grant and his girlfriend saw the police walking towards them and split up. As they got closer to the train, police started to pick out people they believed to have been involved in the fight. Pirone walked up to two black men and ripped the jacket off one. Pirone threw three people against the wall and then turned to the train, yelling for everyone involved in the fight to exit the train and come to him. Everyone remained on the train, so Pirone walked into the train to see if there was anyone who looked as if they were involved in the fight. Pirone saw Grant and removed him.

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