Gov jumps into fare-beat battle
Vows 500 more cops in big crackdown
Gov. Cuomo has a message for fare-beaters: pay up.
The governor said on Monday that 500 uniformed officers will be assigned to subway stations and bus stops to help curb fare evasion, which just this year could cost the Metropolitan Transportation Authority $260 million.
The NYPD, which already polices the subway system, will supply 200 of the officers and the MTA’s internal police force will supply another 200. The remainder will be reassigned from MTA bridge and tunnel duty. They will start next Monday.
Cuomo said the locations where fare evasion is most prevalent correlate with where assaults on transit workers have happened in recent years, and that the additional officers will help deter those types of attacks.
“This is a big victory for Local 100 and for our members,” said Transport Workers Union Local 100 President Tony Utano. “We want to go to work and do our jobs and go home to our families unharmed. We are sick and tired of the abuse.”
Also on Monday, Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. said his office will invest $40 million in transit security and fare evasion enforcement, including personnel training and video monitoring of subway turnstiles and gates.
“We ought to keep our eyes on a couple of things,” said Vance. “Number one: racial disparity in prosecutions, and with fare evasion prosecutions those that have been previously handled were overwhelmingly men and women of color.”
People will not be arrested for jumping the turnstile; they will be given a $100 summons that can be disputed by mail or in person at the Transit Adjudication Bureau in downtown Brooklyn.
The MTA is also exploring new emergency gate designs to keep people from rushing through without swiping a MetroCard. Some upgraded stations have low gates that people are able to reach over and open.
MTA Chairman Patrick Foye (inset) said the rollout of the tap-and-pay OMNY system may help reduce fare evasion, and at the very least give the MTA more precise data on the problem. The MTA is scheduled to release its latest report on fare evasion on Friday.
Officials declined to say where the additional officers would be stationed. Foye said they would be “randomly assigned to subway and bus routes where we think that they can have the most effect in reducing fare evasion.”
He said stations in Manhattan with high levels of fare evasion include Union Square, Penn Station, and Grand Central.
“I think it’s a red herring,” said Riders Alliance spokesman Danny Pearlstein. “It distracts the governor and the folks at the MTA from fixing the subway, which is the most important thing they need to do right now.”