Policing, Trust & Riders: Does Enforcement Help or Harm?
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Fare evasion fell 30%, but studies find no clear link between enforcement and reduced crime as disparities persist.
Do crackdowns add safety or strain?
The MTA touts results: subway fare evasion fell ~30% from Q2 2024 to Q1 2025 as guards, delayed egress, and hardware tweaks rolled out, with pilots reporting big drops at targeted stations. At the same time, citywide crime trends are mixed. Overall shootings hit record lows in 2025, while transit-specific monthly stats show fluctuations by category.
Whether enforcement boosts safety is less clear. A John Jay/DCJ study found no statistically significant link between fare-evasion enforcement and felony/misdemeanor arrests at stations (2018 to 2023), suggesting deterrence doesn't automatically translate into broader crime reductions. Meanwhile, watchdogs highlight rising low-level arrests and disparities, noting fare-evasion arrests more than doubled early in 2025 versus 2024.
Policy-wise, Albany shifted the tone: first-time evaders now get a warning, escalating fines only on repeat offenses, an attempt to thread equity into deterrence. The question underground is practical: do new gates, waits at emergency exits, and more checks make stations feel safer, or just more tense for those already stretched?
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Published October 2, 2025
Rachel Kowalski is a contributor for Tunnel Vision.
This article is part of the Fares series.