At the busiest station in New York, it took six undercover police officers fifteen minutes to restrain a single fare-dodger. This image serves as a stark reminder of how tough it is to address the MTA’s crisis.
The Post was at the Times Square station when the man exclaimed, “Bruh! Bruh! ” and refused to show identification. You can’t do this to me, no!” in front of commuters, he said, falling to his knees and demanding that police handcuff and eventually drag him to the precinct while he yelled.
The suspect behaved so strangely that police sent him to Bellevue Hospital for observation. It came out that he had a bench warrant for illegal possession of stolen items.
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And The Post saw fare-beater after fare-beater leap the turnstile or pass through the open emergency door at just one entry of the Times Square station in the fifteen minutes it took the entire squad to deal with him.
The incident occurred just hours before a subway fare-cheater used a Mace to attack two NYPD officers at the East 116th Street station.
The arrest was a part of a two-hour deployment of plainclothes NYPD transit police officers in Times Square, which The Post observed. During that deployment, 10 summonses and three theft of service arrests were made as part of a crackdown on fare-beaters intended to apprehend violent criminals and repeat offenders.
Inspector Jonathan Bobin, commanding officer of the Transit Bureau’s Special Operations Division, told The Post, “I wish we could stop everyone, but we can’t. But we conduct these targeted operations at stations where we’re having complaints or we’re having high crime to get the recidivists off the street, even just for a day.”
“You notice other customers who aren’t paying while you are a paying client. It’s just one of many factors that can contribute to a chaotic atmosphere and underground system.
The Post has discovered that Eric Harvey is currently the most active criminal in the tube.
With almost 200 busts in his career for manipulating MetroCard vending machines or selling swipes for cash, he was the largest transit offender of the previous year.
However, according to the most recent MTA data, fare-beating on buses and subways lost straphangers an astounding $690 million in revenue last year.
In the five years of MTA data that are available online, the percentage of subway riders who jumped the turnstiles between July and September of last year was estimated to be 14%, the highest amount ever.
In addition, 41% of bus users in the third quarter of 2023 travelled without paying.
According to Bobin, each year his squads apprehend thousands of people and summon thousands of the worst tube cheaters.
Missing the $2.90 fare can result in fines ranging from $50 to $100 according to the fare-beater evasion squad.
Many of the people they catch don’t think they are police officers, so they flash their shields to them and wear bodycams beneath their coats.
“Correcting behaviour is the goal, not necessarily making arrests,” Bobin stated.
In actuality, the transit police let two distinct groups of tourists—one Haitian and the other French—who appeared disoriented by their surroundings to continue on their journey when they concluded they hadn’t purposefully entered the emergency gate without paying.
Tuesday, Sgt. Fernando Cordero, who was in charge of one of the squads, told The Post, “We’re out here and we’re doing our job and we’re stopping large numbers of people.”
“Although it might seem like we’re up against a lot of obstacles, we really exist and the typical person who gets caught is usually too ashamed to do it again.”
Last week, Dajuan Robinson, 36, allegedly started a violent rush-hour fight on board an A train approaching Hoyt-Schermerhorn station in Brooklyn, which resulted in him being shot with his own gun. This incident dramatically highlighted the link between far evasion and crime.
When the incident happened, two of the undercover transit team officers from Tuesday’s Times Square deployment were at the station, and one of them had to perform CPR on Robinson.
Without a doubt, the situation was absurd, the officer told The Post. “It’s the kind of thing we deal with every day, but I hadn’t quite seen anything like that.”
However, the 1,200 specialised transit police claim that the battle to end fare-beating at 472 stations on the 24 lines of the city is simply unfair.
In addition, Governor Kathy Hochul has authorised 1,000 additional state troopers, National Guard personnel, and MTA officers—who typically patrol the Metro North and LIRR networks—to conduct bag inspections on the subway. Transit police are supplemented by 1,000 regular NYPD officers in a “policing surge” during peak hours.
Nonetheless, a source acquainted with tube policing told The Post that the police presence is still a “drop in the bucket.
