Mayor Thomas M. Menino is calling for a crackdown on violent crime on the T as a Herald review shows passengers at busy MBTA stations such as Forest Hills in Jamaica Plain, Ruggles in Roxbury and Dorchester's Ashmont stop are most likely to be victims of assaults, robberies and other mayhem.
"We have to be vigilant," Menino told the Herald. "Everyone deserves to be safe on the subways."
MBTA officials point to a slight dip in overall crime reported by commuters last year, but high-profile incidents such as a double stabbing at the Back Bay T stop this month and the fatal shooting of a 13-year-old near the Jackson Square station have prompted Menino to declare that more needs to be done to keep transportation hubs safe.
Straphangers including Keilah Robles couldn't agree more.
"I've seen fights; fistfights and knife fights," the 19-year-old Roslindale resident said recently as she pushed her 4-month-old daughter, Heavenz, through Forest Hills station.
City Hall sources said Menino is so distressed about subway crime he is discussing ways to "improve communication" with MBTA police Chief Joseph Carter, who oversees the 254 T officers, at his weekly Strategic Crime Council meetings.
All told last year, some 972 major crimes - assaults, rapes, robberies, car thefts and larcenies - were reported to MBTA police, down from 1,000 in 2005, according to T statistics reviewed by the Herald.
Among the most serious crimes last year were the rapes of three women, one at the Forest Hills stop, another at Ashmont and the third at the Maverick T station in East Boston.
Forest Hills station recorded the highest number of incidents among Boston T stops: 43. Ruggles in Roxbury had 34 serious crimes occur, including 21 robberies. The Dudley bus terminal logged 31 major crimes, including 16 robberies. Ashmont was also a hotbed of criminal activity, with 24 reported.
Of course, many incidents go unreported but leave a lasting impression on commuters. Jeanell Barrett, 22, of Chelsea said she was grabbed by a man at the Dudley Bus Terminal when she went to visit her boyfriend in Roxbury.
"The people that congregate there are very aggressive, very physical," Barrett said. "I just don't take the subways over there anymore."
Some stations, including Alewife in Cambridge and Wonderland in Revere, recorded more crimes than most Hub T stops last year, but those totals were inflated by dozens of reported bicycle thefts and stolen bike parts.
MBTA Deputy Chief John Martino said the crime reported on public transportation is "infinitesimal" when considering the T logged more than 337 million passenger rides last year.
"You have a less than half of 1 percent chance of being victimized by crime on the MBTA," Martino said. "The crime we do have is primarily youth-on-youth. A lot of the people we carry are young people."
Some T stations such as Ruggles, Roxbury Crossing and Forest Hills, all on the Orange Line, are magnets that draw boisterous teens after school and at night, which can having a chilling effect on older passengers.
Loretta Strickland, 65, of Jamaica Plain said that groups of young kids on the train at Forest Hills make her uneasy.
"I usually don't feel safe because there's so many kids here, just gangs of kids," Strickland said. "They make me nervous."
Meanwhile, the T's Martino downplayed any breakdown of communication between Menino and T cop chief Carter.
"As violent crime is going up, including in the city of Boston, crime is going down on the MBTA," Martino said, adding that T cops made 1,102 arrests in 2006.
"Our officers are patrolling in a highly visible manner. The response times are very quick. We rely on, and work cooperatively with, the local police departments."
Republished with permission of the Boston Herald.
