Crackdown Continues on Fare Cheats
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) _ San Francisco's Municipal Transportation Agency has resumed its Proof of Payment program after a three month hiatus.
Muni chose to stop its more than year old fare evasion crackdown this May after concerns were voiced about the fare inspector-police officer teams being culturally insensitive and unfairly targeting minorities.
A main complaint came from some in the Chinese community who said they didn't understand why they were being stopped or ticketed.
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Muni Executive Director Nathaniel Ford said the teams spent the past 90 days going through sensitivity training, which included role-playing exercises.
"As you can imagine, asking somebody for their fare or challenging them on their fare can create a certain amount of tension," said Ford. "And that could be made even worse if there's a language barrier. We gave them the opportunity to develop some new tools. They'll have some cards which will have some phrases as it relates to other languages."
The program started again on Monday for Muni Metro and Ford said about thirty $75 tickets were handed out.
The bus system's crackdown will start on Friday.
Ford said one other change is that the teams have been scaled back. Instead of a dozen members, there will now be about six making their way through buses and cars.
