PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — SEPTA's third-quarter statistics have shown serious crime trending further downward — and citations for fare evasion way up.
Crime data for the first nine months of 2025 indicated an increase in robberies over the same period in 2024, but drops in seven of eight categories of serious crime, including homicide and aggravated assault.
“Overall crime is down 10% compared to last year and you may remember last year we set a record with a pretty big one-year drop in crime, a 33% drop,” SEPTA Police Chief Charles Lawson told KYW Newsradio.
“Data over time is what guides us and the data clearly is pointing towards a much overall better culture of safety and security on SEPTA than just a couple of years ago.”
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There have been 6,300 citations for fare evasion this year, up 47%. Lawson credited stepped-up enforcement for the increase in tickets for fare jumpers. He said attention on less serious crimes such as smoking or alcohol use led to less crime overall and posited that focus was likely a bigger factor in the 10% drop in serious crime than the threat of service cuts.
“That may have played a very small part in it, but I really think that this is more indicative of strategy that's working,” Lawson said.
Lawson noted that after a post-COVID spike in crime, he saw the beginnings of better behavior. “When you look at everything as a whole,” he said, “I absolutely believe this points to a better culture of obeying the law and obeying our rules.”