BART Directors Say They'll Follow ACLU’s Lead on Wireless Service Shutdowns
OAKLAND, Calif. -- Bay Area Rapid Transit officials said any future wireless service cutoffs will be done under a coming policy that will be based on advice from the ACLU. At a special meeting Wednesday of the San Francisco Bay area rail system’s board, with what participants called the eyes of the world watching, President Bob Franklin said the body will vote on a policy at a meeting in two weeks or the subsequent one in four weeks, after a second round of public comments. Two of his board colleagues said they would appreciate recommendations from a recently created review committee for the agency’s police department. And board member Lynette Sweet said the policy should be run past the FCC and California’s Public Utilities Commission before taking effect. BART Police Chief Kenton Rainey said the PUC has asked him and his department’s independent auditor to attend a commission hearing in late September.
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A shutdown of wireless service in anticipation of a protest on the platform of a downtown San Francisco station on Aug. 11 brought international attention, an FCC inquiry, criticism, hacking of a website for BART passengers and continuing demonstrations, some producing transit disruptions. The issue is seen as an early test of policy in the U.S., against a backdrop of condemnation of China and Middle Eastern countries for their control of communications technology used in political organizing. BART managers continued to emphasize at the meeting that they acted on the basis of information that what’s called a flash mob planned civil disobedience which the administrators thought created a risk of death from falls to the tracks from the crowded platforms. No protest was held that day.
A letter Monday from the ACLU of Northern California sought “a policy that BART does not shut down cell phone service on its trains or platforms except in the most extraordinary circumstances, and certainly not to interfere with demonstrations or other expressive activity.” A “cell-phone triggered bomb would be a prototypical example” of an exceptional case, and so would preventing “hostage takers from communicating with their accomplices,” said the letter to the board’s members.
BART’s policy should “basically follow this ACLU document” and allow cutoffs only “when our passengers are at extreme risk,” Franklin said. It should also provide for alternative communications for people with disabilities and others who need to make calls, he said. BART should have the ACLU review its proposed policy before it take effect, Franklin said. During public comments, an advocate for people with impaired hearing had said BART leaves them in the dark without access to cellphone apps telling them what’s going on in the system.
Board member Joel Keller said he would have asked more questions if he had had the benefit of the ACLU letter when he was briefed by staff members before the cutoff. “We should err on the side of not allowing cutoffs” without strong justification, he said. “It really is frustrating that I as a board member will be held accountable for a staff decision, and it’s not one that should ever be made that way again,” Sweet said. She said the board “really needs to pay attention” to the ACLU’s position and allow wireless service cutoffs only in an emergency of “9/11 level” -- not “we don’t like what you're saying and we're going to stop you from saying it.” Colleague Tom Radulovich called the ACLU letter the “foundation of a good policy” for BART. The agency should “make sure everyone has the same idea of what an extraordinary circumstance is, so we don’t have this problem again."
Member Gail Murray said she has read “hundreds of emails, articles, things sent to me from the United Kingdom -- everywhere” about the cutoff. She emphasized safety risks and suggested posting signs declaring only the parts of stations outside the turnstiles “a free speech area.” Murray also expressed worry about “setting a precedent” for cell shutdowns that shouldn’t take place. Fellow member John McPartland said he wants to “maintain our ability to control cell service” until any legislation from a higher level of government limits it. He said by phone link to the meeting that he supports posting signs in stations reserving the right to suspend cellphone service for safety, law enforcement, homeland security or maintenance, notifying passengers that the service is offered as a “courtesy” inside the turnstiles, and telling them how to communicate without mobile service in an emergency.