PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Amid a rise in violent crime, SEPTA is beefing up its police force with the addition of 21 new officers. The recent graduates from the Municipal Police Academy at Delaware County Community College were sworn in to the SEPTA police force Wednesday.
SEPTA budgets for 194 officers in the field, and this new class brings the force up to 178. They’re arriving at a critical time, said SEPTA police chief Chuck Lawson.
“We’re dealing with levels of violence that we haven’t seen,” Lawson told reporters Wednesday at SEPTA headquarters. “We’re only 41 years old as a police department. And the last four to five have been more violent than we’ve ever seen on the system.”
Lawson said the additional officers will help to provide a more visible police presence on a system that saw two homicides in May and a rise in aggravated assaults.
SEPTA last year raised officers’ starting salaries to $62,000, a move Lawson said was a major factor in being able to attract recruits.
Among the new officers is Shamari Dally, who hopes to do his part to make SEPTA safer.
“I know I can’t change it all by myself, but every little effort by each one of us could help in the long run,” he told KYW Newsradio.
“I always wanted to be a police officer, since I was young. I started in corrections, trained for this and applied with SEPTA and, thankfully, I’m here today,” said new officer Gina Brooks.
Antionette Chestine said she brings a special empathy to her new job as a SEPTA police officer.
“Being a rider myself, I know what it’s like to be a passenger needing assistance,” she said. “Hopefully that’s helpful because I’ve been in those seats before.”
Having more police on patrol will help to reassure passengers, said SEPTA general manager Leslie Richards. “We’ve heard from our riders that they want to see the police officers on our system,” she said. “Even though this class gives us many more people on the ground, many more eyes on the system, we really need everyone’s help.”
She encouraged riders to report suspicious activity using the Transit Watch app.
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