Queena Kim/The Bay Citizen

BART police prepare for protests at about 5 p.m. Monday at Civic Center BART station

Under scrutiny for three fatal officer-involved shootings in four years, the BART Police Department will take a more community-oriented approach to patrolling the transit system, The Bay Citizen learned Monday.

BART police will be assigned to cover smaller portions of the system, so that they can get to know the local people and problems, said Tom Radulovich, vice president of BART's board of directors. Officers will also be much more visible on trains, at stations and in parking lots, Radulovich said.

“It’s a well-established way for police to get more intimate knowledge of the communities they serve,” he said.

The BART Police Department unveiled its new Zone Geographical Policing Structure at a Tuesday afternoon news conference. Officers will be assigned to patrol one of five zones: Zone I/All Oakland Stations; Zone II/Contra Costa County and City of Berkeley stations; Zone III/ Alameda County stations from San Leandro to Dublin/Pleasanton; Zone IV/San Francisco stations, and Zone V/San Mateo County stations.

“A Zone Lieutenant will now be in command of one of the five patrol zones, where a team of patrol Sergeants, Police Officers and Community Service Officers will be responsible and accountable for providing 24/7 service to their areas within the BART District,” BART PD Chief Kenton Rainey said in a statement.

The change in the department's approach to policing comes more than three years after BART Officer Johannes Mehserle shot and killed an unarmed man, Oscar Grant, on the Fruitvale station platform. After that shooting, the department agreed to 127 policy changes recommended by an independent auditor, including more community policing.

Only a fraction of those changes had been implemented last July, when another BART police officer, James Crowell, shot and killed Charles Hill, a drunk, knife-wielding transient.

BART police critics have argued that the shooting could have been prevented if officers had been more familiar with people like Hill, who homeless advocates say frequented the Civic Center area.

A BART lawyer said that Crowell acted in self-defense, because Hill was attempting to throw a knife at him. But in a lawsuit filed against the transit agency, Hill’s family claimed Hill was not a threat and that he was standing 15 to 20 feet from Crowell when he was shot.

Asked whether the new policing plan could have prevented Hill's death, Radulovich said, “Possibly, but one never knows what you can do in any of these instances.”

“Presumably, officers who know people who hang out in the Civic Center Plaza would know a lot of these street folks because they’re around a lot,” he said.

The BART police force is composed of 206 officers who patrol the 104-mile-long system, including the stations and trains that accommodate 350,000 commuters each day.