Eight hundred more police officers will be sent into the subway system to crack down on fare evasion, NYPD brass said Monday — an effort they hope will reduce overall levels of crime in the system.
“Blatant fare evasion at the turnstiles remains one of the primary complaints from both law-abiding subway riders and the MTA,” Transit Bureau Chief Michael Kemper said Monday during a press conference at the W. 125th St. station for the Nos. 2 and 3 trains.
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“Our riders should not be subjected to open acts of lawlessness anywhere in our subway system, and that tone of law and order must start at the fare gates,” he continued.
John Chell, NYPD’s chief of patrol, was more blunt.
“Don’t think you can come down here and get a free ride and bring your weapons,” Chell said.
When fare evaders are caught by police and asked to identify themselves, their names are run for outstanding warrants. Those fare jumpers with warrants can then be arrested and searched.
As of Sunday, 1,719 fare evasion arrests have been made in the system this year. Of those arrests, 11 have led to searches that yielded firearms, Kemper said.
The NYPD has issued 28,322 summonses to turnstile jumpers since the start of the year.
Tarik Sheppard, the department’s deputy commissioner for public information, said that increased fare enforcement would keep straphangers safe.
“The commitment to transit safety starts with [policing] theft of service and keeping bad people out of the system,” Sheppard said.
The departmentwide effort to crack down on turnstile jumping, dubbed “Operation Fare Play,” will run for at least five days. Chell and Kemper both indicated that the department would conduct similar surges going forward as needed.
In addition to an influx of officers, Kaz Daughtry, the department’s head of operations, said he was looking to install weapon-detection systems in the subway system, and that the NYPD was already in conversations with at least one firm regarding detection technology.
The 800 uniformed and plainclothes cops conducting fare enforcement operations will join the 1,000 cops added to the system in February following an uptick in pickpocketing and other grand larcenies at the start of the year.
There have been three murders and two rapes in the subway system so far this year, up from one each by this time in 2023.
Felony assaults are up 7.3%, with 133 this year as of Sunday, up from 124 in the same period last year. Misdemeanor assaults are largely holding steady, with 350 in 2024 against 349 in 2023.
The man who was shot in the head with his own gun this month — after cops say he started a fight with another man on a Manhattan-bound A train — beat the fare by walking through an emergency exit gate, police said.
Neither police nor transit officials have linked any of this year’s other high-profile assaults or murders to fare evasion.
No arrests have been made in the murder of Richard Henderson, who was shot and killed on a No. 3 train in January after trying to break up an argument over loud music.
A 14-year-old and 16-year-old boy have been arrested for a wild shootout at the Mount Eden Ave. No. 4 train station in February that killed bystander Obed Beltran-Sanchez. A 15-year-old suspect remains at large.
Three people were arrested in connection with the shooting death of Alfredo William Alvarez last month in the Bronx, with the alleged shooter claiming self-defense.
Kemper said Monday that the fare enforcement surge is not about increasing arrests.
“It’s to correct behavior,” he said. “It’s behavior that reeks of lawlessness and we need to get that tone of law and order — right when the riders come in to the subway system.”
Fare evasion remains a persistent financial issue for the MTA, with a loss of nearly $300 million annually. The agency has sought to address the matter with hardened fare collection gates and an increase in civil summonses.
MTA Chairman Janno Lieber welcomed the additional cops Monday.
“We’re thrilled by the commitment to transit safety demonstrated again and again by Mayor Adams and the NYPD,” he said in a statement.
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