A new BART police chief has been selected after a nationwide search, according to BART General Manager Bob Powers last Sunday. 

Kevin Franklin is being promoted from interim chief to chief, Powers said. Franklin had been made interim chief in May. 

“Chief Franklin is a life-long BART rider with an intimate knowledge of the system and its police department,” said Powers in a statement released by the agency. “Kevin was instrumental in BPD’s new deployment strategy that has significantly increased the presence of uniformed police personnel on trains and in stations. He is not only detail-oriented, but a creative thinker with a deep commitment to our community. I am confident his leadership will help BART continue to improve the safety of our riders.” 

BART is attributing several safety improvements to Franklin, including the highest year-to-date arrests since the pandemic and an average response time to priority calls of 4 minutes. 

According to BART, Franklin is an Oakland native who has been on the force for 27 years. He began his career with the Oakland Police Department. 

BART also said that Franklin and his family climbed aboard on the agency’s first day of transit, way back in 1972 when he was only three years old. 

Katy St. Clair got her start in journalism by working in the classifieds department at the East Bay Express during the height of alt weeklies, then sweet talked her way into becoming staff writer, submissions editor, and music editor. She has been a columnist in the East Bay Express, SF Weekly, and the San Francisco Examiner. Starting in 2015, she begrudgingly scaled the inverted pyramid at dailies such as the Vallejo Times-Herald, The Vacaville Reporter, and the Daily Republic. She has her own independent news site and blog that covers the delightfully dysfunctional town of Vallejo, California, where she also collaborates with the investigative team at Open Vallejo. A passionate advocate for people with developmental disabilities, she serves on both the Board of the Arc of Solano and the Arc of California. She lives in Vallejo.