Reducing Fare Evasion Starts With Expanding Access to Fair Fares, Not Policing

Reducing Fare Evasion Starts With Expanding Access to Fair Fares, Not Policing


“The MTA’s budgetary woes will not be solved by issuing fare evasion tickets in neighborhoods like Brownsville, where one in three residents live in poverty, especially when overtime pay for NYPD officers in the subway climbed from $4 million to $155 million in 2023.”

Paying the fare at the subway turnstile

Adi Talwar

On Sept. 15, police officers fired their guns nine times to shoot a 37-year-old man when he allegedly drew a knife after being pursued for fare evasion. In the process, they shot one of their own officers and two bystanders—one of whom was hit in the head and left in critical condition.

In response, hundreds of protestors gathered to criticize the police presence in New York City’s subways, with many arguing that such escalatory violence is inevitable under a system that criminalizes poverty. It is unsurprising that this shooting took place in Brownsville, one of Brooklyn’s lowest income neighborhoods and where police officers issued six times as many fare evasion tickets in subway stations than the citywide average in 2023.

The MTA’s budgetary woes will not be solved by issuing fare evasion tickets in neighborhoods like Brownsville, where one in three residents live in poverty, especially when overtime pay for NYPD officers in the subway climbed from $4 million to $155 million in 2023, dwarfing the amount of fares recouped from issuing tickets in the first place.





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