Report: SEPTA sees crime rate drop amid crackdown on fare evasion
SEPTA officials released a new report on Wednesday, claiming that by prioritizing fare evasion, the mass transit provider has seen a 10% reduction in crime compared to the same time period last year.
The new report says that SEPTA has seen reductions in “seven of the eight serious crime categories, including aggravated assaults and thefts,” building on drops in the crime rate that the mass transit provider detailed in its report for the first half of the year.
In fact, officials said, SEPTA’s transit police have issued more than 6,300 citations for fare evasion so far this year. SEPTA said that accounts for a 47% increase over the amount of citations that were issued for fare evasions last year.
“We are working to change the culture around paying a fare,” said SEPTA Transit Police Chief Charles Lawson in a statement released along with the report. “It is a challenge faced by transit systems across the country, and SEPTA is no exception, but we are taking real steps to address it.”
As noted in the newly released quarterly report, SEPTA officials believe that by focusing on fare evasions, transit police have been able to identify other illegal activity within its system, leading to over 700 arrests of wanted individuals.
Year to date, SEPTA reported one homicide so far this year — a 75% drop from four homicides at the same time last year — as well as one rape case, one less than the same time last year, and 65 aggravated assaults, which is down from 69 aggravated assaults that transit police reported for the same period last year.
Other crimes saw decreases too, like burglaries — five this year, when there were 10 this time last year — theft, down 12% with 303 cases so far this year over the 347 seen at this same time last year, as well as drops in arson and auto theft crimes.
Some crimes did see an increase, however. Officials said 110 robberies so far this year topped the 97 reported at this time last year, leading to a 2.9% increase in, what the report considered, violent crime for the year so far.
But, deeper decreases in what the report considered property crimes led to an overall drop of 10% over the course of this year so far.
SEPTA officials said that in order to support the effort to lower crime rate, transit police are focusing of fare evasion “hot spots,” with initiatives like a four-week blitz that was undertaken at the Huntingdon Station of the Market-Frankford Line.
Officials claimed that fare evasion at that station was “nearly eliminated” while officers were on site.
“Our customers see cops as soon as they enter the system and I think that’s carrying over to a lot of other categories,” Chief Lawson told NBC10 in a recent interview. “Folks see cops throughout the system, [they are] less likely to engage in crime, more encouraged and motivated to act a bit better, so, that’s what we are seeing.”
SEPTA officials said it is still updating infrastructure and new full-length fare gates, which are in place at the 69th Street Transit Center, are being installed at nine additional metro stations.
Also, SEPTA noted, the mass transit provider has launched a Surface Transportation Unit that is “dedicated to enforcing fare evasion on buses and trolleys, where entry is not controlled by fare gates.”
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