Photo by Victoria Pickering
As Metro officials try to make the system a safer transportation option, a new report lays out where (and how often) crimes have taken place.
While more than 1,100 crimes occurred on Metro rail last year—an eight percent increase from 2014—the most significant jump in transit-related crimes centered around people waiting for the bus, according to a five-year crime report released by Metro Transit Police.
Crimes at bus stops saw a 69 percent increase from 87 incidents in 2014 to 147 in 2015. This is the largest increase of crimes at bus stops in the past five years.
In one instance last summer, a fifteen-year-old boy was stabbed in the bus waiting area of the Brookland Metro in Northeast. His injuries were not life-threatening, according to authorities, and a 17-year-old boy was arrested for the crime.
Overall, the report shows nearly 100 more serious, transit-related crimes recorded in 2015 than the previous year. The incidences are labeled “Part I Crimes” and include aggravated assault, arson, attempted motor vehicle theft, burglary, homicide, larceny, larceny (snatch/pickpocket), motor vehicle theft, rape, and robbery.
Looking further at crimes by location, those that happened on the bus, at metro facilities, in parking lots, and “others” saw a decrease since 2014.
The report also includes data of enforcement efforts by transit police. Among these numbers, there were more than 5,000 cases of fare evasion in 2015—up 45 percent from 2014. Fare evasion in 2015 was also higher than in the past five years.
In March, additional Metro Transit Police officers were placed at popular rail stations and bus routes to ramp up enforcement. Between April 27 and May 8, officers wrote warning citations to fare evaders. For the next 90 days, they issued fines up to $100.
And in August, Metro announced a pilot to test video screens showing real-time surveillance footage on X2 buses, to curb fare evasion, as well as assaults against bus drivers.
Of police enforcement efforts, calls for service also increased, while arrests, citations/summonses, written warnings, and TVC’s count went down from 2014.
Last week, the council’s Judiciary Committee rejected an amendment to Chairman Kenyan McDuffie’s crime bill that would have stiffened penalties for crimes that occur on public transportation. The amendment mirrored a measure in Mayor Muriel Bowser’s Safer, Stronger D.C. legislation.
“Decades of research shows that longer penalties do not deter crime,” said D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson at the hearing. “It feels good…but the effect just isn’t there.”
