BART directors today approved 11 members of a citizen review board that will oversee the transit agency’s police department.
BART officials decided to create the review board following the shooting death of unarmed passenger Oscar Grant III, a 22-year-old Hayward man, at the hands of former BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle at the Fruitvale station in Oakland on Jan. 1, 2009.
Mehserle was convicted of involuntary manslaughter last year and is serving a two-year state prison term.
In addition to the citizen review board, BART directors formed a Police Department Review Committee and decided to hire an independent police auditor.
BART officials are still in the process of hiring the auditor and hope to make an announcement soon. The citizen review board won’t begin meeting until an auditor is named.
Named to the citizen board by individual BART directors today were former Berkeley Police Chief Doug Hambleton of Danville, Peter Barnett of Oakland, Sukari Beshears of Pittsburg, Benjamin Douglas of Lafayette, Ken Jones of San Francisco, Sharon Kidd of Berkeley, Les Mensinger of Fremont, George Perezvelez of Berkeley and William White of Oakland.
Jennifer Scaife of Berkeley was selected by a majority of directors to be the at-large member of the review board, and BART police officers and managers selected Suzanne Angeli of Pleasant Hill, a former BART customer service manager and labor leader, to be the 11th member.
The citizen’s review board will review, recommend and monitor the implementation of changes to police policies, procedures and practices.
It will also receive citizen allegations of on-duty police misconduct and participate in recommending disciplinary action and community outreach.
Jeff Shuttleworth, Bay City News
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