SEPTA's fare evasion crackdown is no joke. Ask the more than 3,200 people criminally charged this year

By Ellie Rushing and Thomas Fitzgerald | Philadelphia Inquirer (TNS)

PHILADELPHIA — SEPTA has criminally charged thousands of Philadelphians with fare evasion over the last year, sending a flood of cases through the courts and a message to riders that the days of jumping turnstiles without consequence are numbered.

Since last June, more than 7,400 people have been charged with theft of services, a summary offense that requires people to go to court, and can carry a fine of up to $300, according to data from SEPTA. This year alone, more than 3,200 riders have been charged with the crime, the vast majority this spring — a staggering jump compared to the 312 people charged within the same time frame last year, according to data from the district attorney's office.

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The crackdown officially began last summer before tapering off in the winter, but data show that since March, police have started taking an even more stringent approach, with officers fanning out across subways, trolleys, and even buses, charging more riders, and creating a backlog of cases in the courts.

Transit Police Chief Charles Lawson said the agency has learned so far that the majority of fare evaders are everyday working residents — nurses, lawyers, even city employees with free passes, who, in a rush to catch the train, or out of habit after not paying in recent years, step over the turnstiles.

"This isn't just criminal rule breakers. It's being committed by everyone," Lawson said.

And, he said, it costs the transit agency more than $50 million a year.

Lawson said the goal of the crackdown is not "to hang a charge on someone's record" but to change the culture for riders — and, as SEPTA faces an acute financial crisis and a $213 million budget deficit, restore a critical source of income.

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"We need to inconvenience our customers enough to make them want to pay the fare," he said.

An inconvenience it has been. One 62-year-old man, in a haze after a post-work happy hour in March, said he forgot to swipe his Key card and stumbled through the Broad and Snyder Broad Street Line station without paying. He was charged with theft of services and had to take a day off from work on a recent Thursday to address the case in court.

"They're not joking around," said the man, who asked not to be identified for privacy reasons.

The 52 cases filed on average each day from March 1 through April 30 represent a tiny fraction of the system's hundreds of thousands of daily riders, but they mark a significant change in the agency's enforcement stance. More people have been charged with theft of services this year than any other theft category in the city, according to the data.

From 2019 until last summer, SEPTA officers had issued $25 tickets to anyone caught evading the fare, Lawson said. But that approach was unsuccessful, he said — most people never paid the tickets, and it cost money to pursue scofflaws, typically to no avail.

So last June 1, he said, fare evasion was again upgraded to a criminal offense.

Data show that the agency first focused its efforts on the stations in Kensington, coinciding with the city's crackdown on drug use and quality-of-life crimes in the neighborhood. It continues to be a hot spot of enforcement, behind the 69th Street Transportation Center, according to SEPTA's data.

The transit agency's data on the demographics of people cited was incomplete and not immediately available.

Republican lawmakers opposed to increased state money for SEPTA have often demanded recovery of revenue lost to fare evaders.

Turnstile jumping had been treated as a crime for years, but SEPTA abandoned that policy in 2019 after the agency said it was dysfunctional and created "criminal stigma." Issuing a ticket was no deterrent and encouraged bad behavior, Lawson said.

He said the agency has seen a correlation between stricter fare enforcement and a reduction in other quality-of-life issues and crimes on the transit system.

Officers dialed back the enforcement at the start of this year, he said, and almost immediately saw an uptick in crimes. January was "our worst month in like 16 months on crime," he said, with reports of robberies, smoking, and use of alcohol and drugs going up compared to previous months and years, according to the agency's data.

"When our enforcement level is high, crime and disorder tends to be lower," he said.

Lack of enforcement during the pandemic in particular created a culture where many riders expected not to pay, he said. Riders have said it feels unfair if they have to pay when the people before them jump the turnstiles, he said, and so even some people who can afford to pay now choose not to.

"These are reasonable, law-abiding citizens who decided, for whatever reason, the fare is optional," he said. "These are people who wouldn't walk into a store and fill their bags and steal things. But they're doing it to us, on our backs."

SEPTA said it's impossible to know exactly how many people ride without paying every day, but anecdotally, Lawson estimates from watching videos at stations, that maybe three out of 10 people regularly paid a fare last year. The agency is implementing new technology to be able to track it more closely, he said.

Summoned to court

Summary crimes are the lowest-level offenses in the criminal justice system, but if unaddressed, they can lead to significant fines and bench warrants and remain on a person's criminal record.

Prosecutors offer nearly everyone the option of four hours of community service in exchange for a case to be withdrawn and expunged. Just under a third of people have opted to do that so far this year, according to data from the DA's Office.

Still, more than half of those charged have been found guilty, often in absentia after failing to show up in court multiple times.

The courts have so many cases to get through that officials are preparing to dedicate Fridays solely to working through the backlog.

A recent day in court offered a window into the people and process.

Most offenders didn't show up. A few dozen agreed to do community service. One was a 36-year-old who said that he had tried to tap his phone to pay but that it wasn't working, and there was no teller to ask for help, so he just hopped the turnstile.

"I'm sorry. I was in a rush," he said.

People found guilty in absentia are typically handed a $300 fine, plus about $200 in court costs. A $2.50 fare can quickly become nearly $500.

Fines and fees are paid to the judicial system rather than SEPTA, Lawson said.

"I'm less interested in recouping the fare box money than I am in just changing the behavior and culture," he said. "If we can get our normal, law-abiding, reasonable customers to overwhelmingly start paying a fare again, then that allows us to just focus on criminals, and then we are all in better shape."

In the meantime, SEPTA is monitoring the success of a pilot at the 69th Street Market Frankford Line terminal, where the agency installed 8-foot-tall gates. Lawson said it has seen about a 20% reduction in fare evasion there since.

SEPTA spokesperson Andrew Busch said the agency will install the gates at nine more stations starting this summer.

Paying the fare also allows SEPTA to accurately track its ridership, a metric that is important in determining federal and state funding, Busch said. And right now, as SEPTA prepares to cut 45% of its service starting this fall, he said, it needs all the help it can get.

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