Cracking down on fare evasion can help deter Chicago transit crime

Washington, D.C., and New York City have cracked down on fare evasion because it is linked to serious and violent crime. The Chicago Transit Authority should do the same to curb its growing crime problem.

Crime is making Chicagoans feel unsafe on public transportation, which means they are not using mass transit.

According to a 2022 report by Crain’s Chicago Business, only 1-in-5 Chicagoans considered public transportation “somewhat safe” or “very safe.” A 2023 survey by the Chicago Sun-Times found 45% of Chicagoans feel “somewhat unsafe” or “very unsafe” riding a CTA bus or train while only 7% felt “very safe” doing so.

It’s no wonder. A September 2024 Chicago Tribune analysis of Chicago Police Department data showed year-to-date, CTA homicides and shootings remain well above pre-pandemic levels. There were 39 armed robberies and four homicides and shootings year-to-date in 2024 compared to 21 armed robberies and no shootings a decade earlier. Crime is hurting transit ridership, which is barely 60% of pre-COVID levels.

Most other crimes are up sharply on CTA. So far this year, there have been 366 assaults on CTA buses, platforms, stops, trains and other property through Sept. 28, according to city data. There have been 1,023 batteries, 430 criminal damages, 408 robberies and 585 thefts. Compare those nine-month totals to the entire 12 months of 2023: there were only 248 assaults, 679 batteries, 152 criminal damages, 255 robberies and 451 thefts last year.

City data does not include crimes on CTA property outside the Chicago city limits. One example is the high profile Sept. 3, 2024, quadruple murder on the Blue Line in Forest Park.

Crime, along with the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise of remote work, have contributed to plummeting CTA ridership. Ridership declined from 455.8 million to 273.5 million from 2019 to 2023. If Chicagoans feel unsafe on the CTA, it is hard to see those figures improving anytime soon.

The city can reduce these serious crimes on public transportation by reducing low-level crime such as disorderly conduct and fare evasion. Other cities such as Washington, D.C., where crime on public transportation and fare evasion are down, have implemented this strategy to great effect. By building fare gates, increasing the police presence on public transportation and stopping more fare evaders, D.C. has credibly deterred or prevented more serious crimes on public transportation.

A common objection to policing minor misdemeanors and violations is that police need to be focusing on the “real problems.” As research from the Manhattan Institute explains, police deter, prevent or uncover more serious crimes through routine arrests, citations and stops for nonviolent offenses such as fare evasion. Fare evasion and similar low-level infractions may not immediately seem like the best use of police resources in a city notorious for high rates of homicide and gun violence, but serious criminals commit those minor offenses with impunity. By enforcing laws against those offenses, more tragedies such as the shooting on the Blue Line might be prevented.

Fare evasion and public safety in Washington, D.C., and New York City

Chicago police and policymakers can learn from Washington, D.C. Fare evasion has long been rampant in our nation’s capital. The Washington Metropolitan Transit Authority “conservatively estimates” that fare evasion cost the agency $40 million in 2022. In 2023, Metro General Manager Randy Clarke and Metro Transit Police administrators said there is a “direct correlation” between fare evasion and more serious crimes. Generally speaking, one police leader said, “not all fare evaders are criminals, but all criminals fare evade for the most part.”

Violent crime in Washington, D.C., increased 39% from 2022 to 2023. In response to rising crime rates, especially of carjackings, homicides and shootings on public transportation and elsewhere in the city, the D.C. Council unanimously passed the Secure D.C. Omnibus Emergency Amendment Act. Muriel Bowser, the Democratic mayor of Washington, D.C., signed the Secure D.C. bill into law on March 11, 2024. Among other measures, the bill allows Metro Transit Police to require people they stop for fare evasion to provide their address and ID or name so they can be given a civil citation including a fine of up to $50. If a rider refuses to do so, MTP can arrest them and impose a fine of up to $100. Before the Secure D.C. bill, transit police were only able to ask fare evaders to either pay the fare or leave the station.

That legislation, as well as Metro installing more than 1,200 five-foot-tall fare gates at all 98 train stations, has led to an 82% drop in fare evasion across the Metrorail system. Metro has also addressed the 70% fare evasion rate on the bus system by installing fare boxes on all 1,500 of its buses.

The increased police presence and enforcement of fare evasion on Washington, D.C., public transportation has almost certainly deterred or prevented more serious crimes. Transit police are patrolling stations in greater numbers and have written more than 10,000 fare evasion citations as of Sept. 19, 2024. D.C. Metro attributes a 19% decrease in crime on public transit to fare evasion enforcement and an increased police presence.

As of the same date, transit police had arrested more than 250 people for fare evasion who turned out to have open arrest warrants, often for repeat or serious offenses. They have also recovered 16 illegal firearms. Because as few as 1% of offenders are responsible for as much as 60% of violent crimes, a relatively small number of such arrests can go a long way toward making public transportation safer.

A similar approach was also highly effective in New York City in the 1990s and early 2000s. Beginning in 1990, transit police chief William Bratton introduced a policy whereby officers would “interdict people committing nonviolent misdemeanors or civil offenses.” Part of that policy was an increased police presence on the subway. By 1991, subway felonies fell 15% and continued to fall during most of the next three decades. In 1990, 26 people were murdered on the subway in New York City. By the 2000s, that number dropped to one or two per year. Total subway system felonies fell from 18,324 in 1990 to 2,469 in 2019. Many conditions and policies, from the booming 1990s economy to “stop and frisk,” arguably contributed to plummeting subway crime in New York City, but increased enforcement and policing are certainly leading factors.

Lack of enforcement and police presence in Chicago

The Chicago Transit Authority’s rules of conduct define “entering into the paid area of any CTA property without paying the required fare” as trespassing punishable with a fine of at least $300, a period of supervision or arrest. The problem is enforcement. Data on fare evasion in Chicago is sparse but there were only 43 arrests for fare evasion on Metra between 2016 and 2018, the most recent years for which data is available. That suggests fare evasion enforcement is not a priority.

CTA needs more officers to protect passengers

Enforcement on public transportation would be easier if the Chicago Police Department had the personnel and resources necessary to do the job. The department is significantly smaller now than it was in 1996, the last time Chicago hosted the Democratic National Convention. Back then, Chicago police boasted 13,468 sworn officers. At the end of last year, there were only 11,703. Chicago’s population may have declined since then but crime has risen, especially compared to pre-pandemic levels.

The single most important step the city can take toward addressing fare evasion and deterring more serious crimes is hiring more police officers. By freeing up or recruiting more sworn officers, the department can assign more personnel to patrol public transportation than the current 170 officers. D.C. Metro, for example, has an authorized strength of 420 sworn officers and 106 security special police. Other cities and states have done so through a combination of financial incentives and a pro-law enforcement culture.

Here are a few ways Chicago can bolster or free up its police force without unnecessarily adding to the city’s $1 billion deficit:

1. Attracting officers through higher pay by tapping the Chicago Policemen's Annuity and Benefit Fund. It has an asset value of about $3 billion. The city should create an option, if constitutional given the pension obligation in the state constitution, for officers to earn higher salaries now and a smaller defined-benefit pension later. Because the prices of everything from gas to housing are up and rents have risen 41% in under 10 years in Chicago, some current and prospective police officers might prefer to have a fraction of the pension fund reallocated to front-end bonuses and salaries rather than benefits they won’t receive for decades.
2. Shift Chicago police resources to officers and away from administration. In 1996, the ratio of sworn officers to civilian employees was about 5 to 1. By 2022, the ratio had grown to 13.8 to 1. The department can do this by “civilianizing” administrative or other desk jobs by allowing more civilian employees to work for the department in order to free up more sworn officers.
3. Enhancing career choices for candidates who either aced the Chicago Police Officer Examination or have a college degree. Currently, recent police academy graduates are generally given undesirable assignments regardless of their performance or qualifications. A system more like the military’s Officer Candidate School, with higher pay scales and more career choice for high-performing officers, can attract high-caliber talent to the department.
4. Limiting funds allocated toward overtime pay. By increasing police officer recruitment and retention, the above measures would in turn reduce the amount the department must allocate towards overtime pay, which has been over budget every year between 2013-2022. Those funds could then be diverted to enforcement. In 2023, the CPD spent $298 million on police overtime, 40% more than in 2022 and nearly triple the amount allotted to police overtime in the 2023 city budget. As noted by former mayoral candidate Paul Vallas, funds that now go to police overtime could be more effectively used to bolster police strength.

With the personnel and resource problems addressed, the Chicago Police Department could focus more on policing quality-of-life offenses on public transportation in order to deter or prevent more serious crimes.

Conclusion

Unlike in Washington, D.C., the obstacle to policing fare evasion and other nonviolent offenses on Chicago’s public transportation is not the lack of legal empowerment to do so. The problem is a matter of personnel and political will. Taking steps to recruit more police officers will allow the police to allocate resources more effectively. Using those resources to stop seemingly small crimes can go a long way toward preventing tragedies such as the Blue Line shooting in Forest Park.

Stronger enforcement will also make Chicagoans feel safer. When Chicagoans feel safer, CTA ridership can move closer to its pre-pandemic levels. With more Chicagoans riding public transportation, the return of the pre-pandemic “safety in numbers” will make Chicago even safer for everyone.