PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Crime on SEPTA is at its lowest level in 16 years.
Serious crimes in the third quarter of this year were down 10% over the same quarter last year on the L (Market-Frankford Line), the B (Broad Street Line), and buses. Long-term, thefts are down from 943 in 2019 to 394 last year.
One factor, SEPTA said, is its Virtual Patrol Unit — officers who watch live feeds of the system’s 30,000 cameras.
For example, on their screens on Sunday, officers saw two men stealing copper on the L tracks near Spring Garden Street. Transit Police Capt. Will Saunders said officers in the Virtual Patrol Unit can relay info to cops on the scene.
“When we get reports of things going on, they can pull them up live and give us up-to-date information, plus go back and look at what occurred leading up to the event,” he said.
“Anytime we can catch them in the act, obviously, that’s the ideal. Obviously we’d like to prevent it first. But if we can’t, the next best thing is to catch them in the act.”
The SEPTA police force has 250 sworn officers, but Saunders said they can’t be everywhere.
“We can’t place an officer in the track area to watch it 24 hours a day, so we utilize the position of the cameras,” he said.
