Mayor Muriel Bowser vetoed the D.C. Council’s Fare Evasion Decriminalization Act on Wednesday, writing in a letter to Council Chairman Phil Mendelson that the bill “will result in additional lost revenue for the Metro system” and that “we should not encourage lawlessness on Metro.”

The D.C. Council passed the fare evasion decriminalization bill in early December last year after more than a year and a half of debate on the issue. The bill was meant to remove criminal penalties for Metro fare evasion, including the possibility of arrest or jail time. Since 1978, fare evasion on Metro has been a criminal offense under D.C. law, punishable by a $300 fine, a 10-day jail sentence, or both.

It’s the mayor’s second veto ever while in office and it’s not clear yet whether it will stick—the Council passed the bill with a veto-proof majority. Overriding a veto takes nine votes and in December, there were only two “no” votes. One came from Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans (who also chairs the Metro Board) and the other from Mendelson.

Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen, who shepherded the bill through the Council, will move for a veto override at an upcoming legislative hearing, a spokesperson told DCist.

Under significant pressure from Md, Va and with support of Metro, DC Mayor Bowser vetoes fare evasion decriminalization bill. Council passed with veto-proof support

— Max Smith (@amaxsmith) January 16, 2019

In her letter, Bowser argues that the bill leaves too much room for criminals who want to evade their fares, and not enough room for enforcement by police.

“It is important to note that the bill simply removes criminal penalties while failing to set up a new civil adjudicative process,” the letter reads. “This leaves WMATA without any meaningful tools to enforce the payment of fares and will encourage fare evasion, which will result in additional lost revenue for the Metro system.” WMATA has estimated that it loses $25 to $50 million per year in lost fares due to fare evasion.

Councilmembers who supported the bill often cited statistics showing that the large majority of fare evasion citations go to African Americans. The Washington Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs released a report last September which showed that, over a two year period, 72 percent of the citations were handed out to black men, 20 percent to black women, and 46 percent to black young people under the age of 25.

“The collateral consequences are numerous and devastating and they are vastly disproportionate to not paying the $2 fare,” Allen said at a Council meeting on the bill last year. Allen was a vocal advocate for the bill on the Council, along with Ward 8 Councilmember Trayon White, who originally introduced it. But a majority of the other councilmembers have also been vocal in their support for the bill.

“I’m sad that Metro’s losing money, but I’m more sad about what’s happening to black people,” At-large Councilmember Robert White said during the debate on the final vote.

Metro, for its part, has been adamantly opposed to the bill from the start. It has been cracking down on Metro fare evasion in the last year, and has credited that crackdown with lower levels of crime in the system. Metro Transit Police found that 25 percent of assaults on bus operators stem from fights over fare in a 2017 report, and officials argued that arresting fare evaders helps keep drivers and operators safe. The agency says that people are rarely arrested for fare evasion alone, but are often charged with more serious crimes.

In announcing an arrest for a brutal unprovoked attack on two riders at Union Station, Metro took pains to highlight that the suspect had previously evaded fares on two unrelated occasions. At the end of the release, the agency rehashed its position on the decriminalization legislation. Dan Stessel, a Metro spokesman, declined to comment on the inclusion of the suspect’s fare evasion history in a press release about a violent crime, but said that “just about every major crime that occurs on Metro has a fare evasion component, and that is a point [the agency] will continue to make.” Councilmember Allen called the language in the release a “scare tactic” and said “Metro needs to be honest with riders.”

The Metro Transit Police has faced criticism for how its handling of some recent fare evasion cases. In February 2018, officers slammed a woman to the ground and chipped her teeth when she wouldn’t get off a bus where she hadn’t paid the fare. She was riding with her two small children. In May of last year, another woman was wrestled to the ground at the Fort Totten station, the scuffle pulling her top down and revealing her breasts to passersby.

“We truly appreciate Mayor Bowser’s leadership on this issue and stand ready to work with the Council to develop solutions that address their stated goal of making Metro accessible to people of limited means, while maintaining safety and fairness for the customers we serve,” Stessel told DCist over email.

This story has been updated with additional comment from Metro, further context about the public debate on the bill, and additional information from Councilmember Charles Allen’s office.