By KURTIS RATTAY
New York City Council Member Rory Lancman demanded on Thursday that the police department release all data on fare evasion arrests and summons, which he says disproportionately targets communities of color and is essentially a “crime of poverty.”
Lancman—along with the Community Service Society and Legal Aid Society—did not demand a change in fare evasion policing, but for the police department to comply with Local Law 47, which ensures transparency by requiring the data be released. The bill unanimously passed in December and the first report was due January 30. But the police released no information, Lancman said.
“What example does it set when the police department charged with enforcing the law don’t follow it,” Lancman said out front of the City Hall R-train station. “We only demand what the law requires—that the police department release information on arrests and summonses in all the subway stations in New York City, and the demographics of those subject to enforcement.”
As it stands, the New York City Police Department can arrest turnstile jumpers, issue a summons or use discretion by giving an informal warning. Usually arrests are reserved for fare evaders with open warrants, without identification or if the person has been stopped for fare evasion before.
The data, which gives demographic information, would provide a basis for lawmakers to decide how the subways would be policed, and whether the “enormous cost” of treating turnstile jumpers as criminals is worth it for taxpayers.
“New York City spends upwards of $50 million dollars every year to arrest, prosecute, to fine low-income New Yorkers who often can’t afford to use public transit,” said a report by Community Service Society. “In other words, the city is using its resources to criminalize poor, predominately black New Yorkers living paycheck to paycheck.”
Fare evasion is happening out of need and desperation, said Harold Stolper, senior labor economist at Community Service Society. But impoverished, mostly black neighborhoods have higher arrest rates than white or Hispanic neighborhoods with comparable crime and poverty.
Black New Yorkers make up about one-third of poor adults in Brooklyn but account for two-thirds of fare evasion, or “theft of services,” arrests, according to a report from Community Service Society.
“The findings suggest that the city was criminalizing poverty at the turnstiles through racializing police tactics that target young black males in Brooklyn,” said David Jones, president of Community Service Society and board member of Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
Police have reported that data was given to Lancman two months ago, and was poised to make the data publicly available. Local Law 47 requires data from all 476 stations, but there were reports that the department wants to disclose data from the 100 stations with the most arrests and summons.
According to Tina Luongo, an attorney from Legal Aid Society, the police department began giving “excuses” about why releasing data may not be a good thing. The police said—according to Luongo—releasing which subway stations have a higher police presence could aid terrorism, and lead to turnstile jumpers going to other stations to catch the train.
“It is an insult that someone would use this data to walk miles from, let’s say, Crown Heights to Park Slope in the heat of summer, the horrible rain, or terrible winters,” Luongo said. “It is disrespectful to the actual issues of terrorism that plagues the entire country.”
If police do not comply with Local Law 47, councilman Lancman said he was considering filing a lawsuit.
Photo by Kurtis Rattay
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