BART Police Chief Kenton Rainey insists the transit agency's security system is robust, despite revelations not all trains have working surveillance cameras.
The transit agency acknowledged Thursday some of its so-called cameras are not cameras at all, but decoys.
"We use multiple types of cameras," said Alicia Trost, BART spokesperson. "Some of them are decoys, but many of the cameras are live and working."
The lack of cameras came to light after BART released photos of Saturday's deadly shooting suspect. The photos show the man entering and exiting the BART station, but not onboard the train where the killing took place.
"Here we have a young man who lost his life," Cephus Johnson said. "The family is going to be asking 'Is there cameras?' or expecting there are cameras on train."
Johnson, whose nephew Oscar Grant was shot and killed by a BART police officer in 2009, said prosecutors had to rely heavily on witness cell phone video because BART surveillance cameras did not capture the bulk of what took place.
Johnson said every BART train should be fully equipped with working cameras.
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"I would like to see cameras installed immediately because the only way commuters can feel safe is to know cameras are real and exist," Johnson said.
BART said its new fleet of trains will be outfitted with cameras in every car, but the fleet will not be completely up and running until 2021. Johnson said that is not soon enough.
