Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
News
MTA says arrests, summonses are surging with more police on NYC subways
By
Gwynne Hogan
Published Nov 1, 2022
Modified Nov 1, 2022
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
Ron Adar/Shutterstock
By
Gwynne Hogan
Published Nov 1, 2022
Modified Nov 1, 2022
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
In the week since Mayor Eric Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul announced they’d send 1,200 officers into the subway each day, fare evasions and arrests in the system have skyrocketed, according to MTA CEO Janno Lieber, who spoke at a press conference on Monday.
Summonses for fare evasion were up more than 80% last week compared to a similar week last year — up to 1,522 summonses. Quality of life summonses were up 118% to 2,298, according to Michael Cortez, an MTA spokesperson. Arrests of all kinds in the subway system nearly doubled, up to 214 arrests, Cortez said.
Lieber described the increases, speaking inside the Grand Central subway stop.
“It's deterrence, it's faster apprehensions, and it delivers the public a greater sense of confidence in safety in the system,” he said. “The No. 1 thing that makes them feel safer is to see a uniformed officer. We're delivering that.”
In addition to flooding the subway with more uniformed officers, the MTA has deployed 50 unarmed guards a month to watch subway entrances to “deter optimistic fair evaders,” Lieber said.
The MTA has struggled to lure riders back into the subways, with only about 63% of pre-pandemic traffic on an average weekday.
A vast majority of office workers are not commuting full-time and jarring violent incidents on the subways have had a further chilling effect for riders — from a 15-year-old in Far Rockaway shot and killed on an A train to a Queens man fatally struck by an oncoming train after he fell onto the tracks during an argument in recent days.
In response, on Oct. 22, Adams and Hochul announced they’d be sending more police officers into the subway system. The governor is a week away from a too-close-for-comfort re-election bid against Rep. Lee Zeldin, who’s made driving down crime the main theme of his campaign.
Advocates have long criticized crackdowns on fare evasion and low level offenses on subways, arguing that they criminalize poverty and disproportionately target Black and Latino riders.
“Using fear of violent crime on the subways as an excuse to issue tickets and fines for fare evasion — a practice that overwhelmingly targets young Black and Latinx people who simply cannot afford the fare — is the worst form of irrational, racially biased criminalization of poverty,” said Molly Griffard, staff attorney with the Cop Accountability Project at The Legal Aid Society, in a statement.
But Lieber has insisted more police presence is what’s needed for ridership to rebound.
“To get everybody back, we're going to have to create an environment where people have confidence in safety, up and down,” he said. “That's why we're doing this.”
Major felony crimes on the subways are up 42% so far this year over last year, but down 4% compared to 2019, Gothamist recently reported.
Subways remain safer than many other places in the city by several measures; there have been more shootings in city playgrounds than on subways, and nine times as many pedestrians killed on city streets by cars and trucks than on city subways.
This story has been updated with additional data and comment.
Tagged
nypd
subway safety
MTA
fare evasion
Gwynne Hogan
Gwynne Hogan is a former Gothamist reporter.
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE news
Central Park birders, others remember 63-year-old woman killed in park
People who said they knew her described her as an artist and a familiar presence in the Ramble.
By
Charles Lane
Published Sep 28, 2026 at 7:04 p.m. ET
Dump truck driver hits and kills cyclist on 34th Street in Midtown, NYPD says
It's the latest in a string of hit-and-run deaths in the city in recent months.
By
Liam Quigley
News
Dump truck driver hits and kills cyclist on 34th Street in Midtown, NYPD says
It's the latest in a string of hit-and-run deaths in the city in recent months.
By
Liam Quigley
New ingredient mandated for Latin American kitchen, restaurant plates in NJ
By
Arya Sundaram
A Brooklyn jail cell filled with smoke. The emergency button failed, a lawyer said.
By
Samantha Max
Crews launch tunnel machines to dig first new Hudson River rail tunnels since 1910
By
Michael Sol Warren
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .