Over a year after many of BART's security cameras were revealed to be fake devices recording nothing, we've got an update on their installation — and you'll be shocked, SHOCKED to hear that the going has been decidedly slow.
BART's dummy camera ruse was revealed in January of 2016, following a fatal shooting on a SF-bound train at West Oakland station. When questions were raised about footage from the incident, BART ducked the queries for a bit, then issued a statement saying that “BART has committed to install a working camera system on each and every train car as quickly as possible."
We subsequently learned that about 77 percent of BART's cameras weren't operative, which meant that the financially strapped transit agency was looking at a $1.4 million bill to fix the situation.
Of course, being BART, "as quickly as possible" isn't quickly at all. It wasn't until September of 2016 that the agency even voted on the purchase for the cameras.
Now, over a year later, we learn via the Chron that BART now says that all of their 669 trains will have working cameras by July 1, a finish date characterized by spokesperson Alicia Trott as “as promised to the public.”
“More than half of the new cameras have been installed,” Trost told the Chron, “and the number changes every day.”
One thing that appears not to have changed: The lack of arrests in the fatal shooting of 19-year-old Carlos Misael Funez-Romero, the man whose possibly random slaying revealed BART's decoy system in the first place. BART police, which is the agency responsible for the investigation, have not released any new information on their work on the case since for over a year. As of publication time, no suspects have been named in his death, nor have any arrests been made.
Related: Could Riding BART Drive You Crazy?