Photo by Darwyn

The D.C. region has seen a spike in reported upskirting incidents in the past three years, according to an NBC 4 report.

NBC’s investigators looked at court documents in D.C., Maryland, and Virginia between 2015 and 2017 that showed a 70 percent increase in reports of people taking photos or videos up a victim’s skirt or dress.

They said a series of incidents took place at shopping centers and Metro stations.

A prominent case in August involved a 19-year-old man who police said took photos up the skirts of dozens of women at the Columbia Heights and U Street stations over a two-day period.

Metro Transit Police learned about the incident after a woman reported feeling a hand up her skirt as she exited the Columbia Heights station on an escalator. She filed a report on Metro’s online sexual harassment system the following afternoon. After investigating, transit police found and contacted additional victims.

They then charged Brandon Lynn Williams, of Forestville, Md., with misdemeanor sexual abuse.

Transit police officers told NBC that victims have become more vulnerable because they’re distracted by electronics and often aren’t aware of their surroundings.

NBC’s investigation also points to a case at a Target store in Sterling, Va. this summer and another at the NASA Goddard campus in Greenbelt, Md., in which a man pleaded guilty to using a pen with a camera to take illicit photos of a colleague over a two-month period.