PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — New crime statistics from SEPTA released on Tuesday show that more serious crimes on the transit system are holding steady after a sharp drop last year. Officials said that tougher enforcement on lower-level offenses may be the reason.
While robbery ticked up slightly, the violent crimes, including murder, rape, and aggravated assault, remained flat compared to last year. In the first quarter of 2025, the report shows there was only one report of murder.
SEPTA Police Chief Chuck Lawson credits the agency's quality-of-life enforcement strategy, which targets offenses like smoking, marijuana use, and fare evasion.
"Serious crime is coming down. Misdemeanor crime is coming down. We're seeing and our customers are reporting less homeless on the system, less smoking on the system. All of these areas are kind of trending in the right direction," said Lawson.
In the first six months of this year, SEPTA officers issued nearly 4400 citations for fare jumpers. That's 74% more citations than the same period in 2024. The citations require a court appearance.
"I think you can certainly correlate our level of enforcement with a level of serious crime on the system. And when we're enforcing at a high rate, serious crime tends to stay pretty low," he said.
Fare evasion costs SEPTA between $30 million $50 million a year. As the agency prepares to cut service amid a budget crisis, Lawson said SEPTA is using targeted enforcement blitzes to deploy more officers to fare evasion hot spots. He added that despite looming service reductions, there are no plans to shrink the SEPTA police force.
