To combat subway fare evasion, the New York Police Department has announced plans to send 800 more uniformed and undercover police to the city’s underground rail system. The program, known as “Operation Fare Play,” aims to stop fare-beaters by increasing police presence at many subway stations over the next five days.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s data, local concerns, and crime rates will all be taken into consideration while choosing the places. According to Michael Kemper, the chief of the NYPD Transit, blatant fare evasion at the turnstiles is a primary and persistent problem.
The NYPD has issued 28,000 summonses for fare evasion this year, and 1,700 people have been taken into custody. Twenty subway users were also found to have firearms; eleven of the weapons were found after police detained them for beating their fare. According to Kemper, correcting behavior and keeping the subway system safe and our riders ultimately safe will be the operation’s success.
Janno Lieber, Chair and CEO of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, expressed enthusiasm about Mayor Eric Adams’s and the NYPD’s dedication to transit safety. Subway crime has decreased overall, according to a recent Post study, but violent assaults that have resulted in severe injuries have increased. Criminal assaults increased to 570 last year from 373 in 2019.
There is very little violence in the subway system; between 2022 and 2023, significant crimes decreased by about 3%, and homicides decreased from 10 to 5. Serious events, however, have garnered media attention. For example, a passenger last month slashed a metro conductor in the throat, and three recent killings have made news. According to the NYPD, Subway crime is down 15.5% this month compared to last year.
Fare-skipping and train violence have been linked, according to police and Mayor Eric Adams. Since residents in New York and other cities emerged from COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns to a 2021 spike in crime, anxieties about the safety of the subway system have proved challenging to allay. After assuming office in 2022, Adams announced a proposal to increase the number of police officers, mental health professionals, and social service outreach workers stationed on the subways.
