BART Wrestles With Cell-Cutoff Policy, Bemoaning Lack of FCC Guidance
OAKLAND, Calif. -- BART is struggling over a policy on cellular service cutoffs in the absence of guidance it has requested from the FCC, said members of the transit agency’s board and its general counsel. The board couldn’t complete action at a public meeting Thursday because members sought changes in various directions in a draft (CD Oct 20 p8). “I'm not comfortable turning to the FCC” for guidance, said board member Robert Raburn. “They have not shown the leadership. We have shown the leadership.” General Counsel Matt Burrows said he had sent the draft to the FCC and California’s Public Utilities Commission for review but hasn’t received a substantive reply. “No regulatory agency has stepped up to say, ‘This is what we do.'” An FCC spokesman declined to comment.
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A signal cutoff in August to prevent a police-brutality protest on a train platform wouldn’t have been allowed under the draft policy, said BART General Manager Grace Crunican. The draft reflects comments from the ACLU of Northern California. But Board President Bob Franklin and members Tom Radulovich and Lynette Sweet expressed concern that the proposal leaves room for shutdowns outside severe emergencies. Crunican said she didn’t read it that way. “This needs to be so air-tight that it doesn’t leave any room for ambiguity,” Sweet said. “There needs to be one interpretation and one interpretation only. Right now we don’t have that.”
Members Gail Murray, Joel Keller and James Fang expressed skepticism that any policy could foreclose varying interpretations. They questioned the practicality of a draft provision that would require the general manager’s approval for a cutoff. Murray said she couldn’t vote for it. “The nation is looking to us to get this right,” she said. “We are the pioneers in this, because we don’t have anyone else to look to.” Colleague Thomas Blalock called the requirement “cumbersome and unrealistic.” Vice President John McPartland called for “flexibility” in the policy. “We have to be able to trust” the judgment of BART managers, Franklin said. Burrows offered a revision saying the decision normally is the general manager’s, but if time is too short a police supervisor or incident commander at the scene can make it. Keller expressed confidence in Burrows’ ability to write a satisfactory provision.
Trevor Timm of the Electronic Frontier Foundation said the agency should get a court order before shutting off service, except in an emergency. Burrows and Keller said there’s no legal reason to do that. Franklin said board adoption of a policy would be delayed until the next meeting, Nov. 17, or the one after, in December.