{"id":279960,"date":"2026-06-27T17:27:49","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T17:27:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/279960\/"},"modified":"2026-06-27T17:27:49","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T17:27:49","slug":"fare-evasion-transit-and-legal-advocates-slam-mamdanis-nypd-for-continuing-aggressive-enforcement-despite-campaign-promises-to-ease-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/279960\/","title":{"rendered":"Fare evasion: Transit and legal advocates slam Mamdani\u2019s NYPD for continuing \u2018aggressive\u2019 enforcement despite campaign promises to ease back"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Legal Aid Society on Friday took Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s NYPD<\/a> to task, charging that it has maintained the same \u201caggressive enforcement\u201d of fare evasion carried out by the previous mayoral administration of Eric Adams.<\/p>\n

Phil Desgranges, attorney-in-charge of criminal law reform at Legal Aid. contended that the NYPD\u2019s continued enforcement of the low-level infraction disproportionately impacts people of color.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis data makes clear that Mayor Mamdani is continuing the same aggressive enforcement approach as the Adams administration over a $3 subway fare, one that continues to disproportionately target New Yorkers of color,\u201d Desgranges said in a statement.<\/p>\n

During the first quarter of this year, the NYPD made 3,188 fare evasion-related arrests, according to newly released NYPD data highlighted by the legal defense group<\/a>. The number of fare evasion arrests exceeded any of the previous three quarters, when Adams was still in office.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the data showed that the NYPD handed out 26,267 fare evasion-related summonses during this year\u2019s first quarter, a jump of 6,433 from the previous quarter.\n<\/p>\n

New Yorkers of color account for 94% of fare evasion arrests and 81% of summonses for the infraction, the data further revealed.\n<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Mamdani, who campaigned on moving away from aggressive enforcement of low-level offenses, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.\n<\/p>\n

NYPD argues more to fare evasion data than meets the eye
\n\"FILEFILE \u2013 Police officers stationed at a subway turnstile to combat fare evasion.Marc A. Hermann \/ MTA<\/p>\n

However, NYPD spokesperson Bradley Weekes pushed back on Legal Aid\u2019s assessment of the data. He pointed out that the department measures fluctuations in crime stats by comparing the same time spans between different years, rather than different time spans within the same 12-month period.<\/p>\n

Looking at the data that way, Weekes said, fare evasion enforcement actually declined by 15% during the first quarter of 2026 when compared to the first three months of 2025.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

Additionally, he stated that since January, the NYPD has \u201cstrategically shifted and focused officers\u202f onto trains and platforms where the vast majority of transit crimes occur.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\u201cExcluding the pandemic years, last year was the safest year in New York City\u2019s subway system since 2009,\u201d he said. \u201cBuilding on that progress, as of June 21st, major crime is down compared to last year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Desgranges, however,\u00a0 argued that the administration should be moving away from enforcement that Legal Aid believes unnecessarily brings New Yorkers of color and immigrants into the criminal legal system, which can place the latter at greater risk of deportation.<\/p>\n

\u201cArresting and jailing New Yorkers for low-level fare evasion does nothing to improve public safety \u2014 it funnels people into the criminal legal system and, for many immigrants, can lead to ICE detention and deportation,\u201d he said. \u201cCity Hall should be ending unnecessary arrests for fare evasion\u2026not doubling down on a failed strategy that imposes potentially catastrophic consequences for minor offenses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, MTA leadership has for many years placed great focus on combating fare evasion, as it loses hundreds of millions of dollars annually to the activity. To accomplish this, the agency has spent heavily on retrofitting turnstiles<\/a> to make them harder to hop over, replacing them with modern fare gates<\/a> that are more difficult to get past, and equipping bus fare agents with technology<\/a> to verify riders\u2019 payments.<\/p>\n

Transit advocates, including the group Riders Alliance, took the opportunity to push for\u00a0expanding the Fair Fares<\/a> reduced-fare program\u00a0as an alternative to aggressive fare evasion enforcement.<\/p>\n

The City Council has proposed making subway, bus, and paratransit trips free<\/a> for those living at or below 150% of the federal poverty level, meaning everyone currently eligible for half-priced trips under the program, through increasing funding for it in next year\u2019s city budget.<\/p>\n

But Mamdani has so far been mum<\/a> on whether , and by how much, Fair Fares should be expanded \u2014 with the June 30 budget deadline just days away.<\/p>\n

\u201cRiders voted for lower costs and without free buses on the horizon this year, Mayor Mamdani must expand Fair Fares in his budget next week,\u201d said Riders Alliance Director of Policy and Communications Danny Pearlstein, in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe NYPD won\u2019t just lay off the subway turnstiles so the mayor must provide free or reduced fares for many more New Yorkers,\u201d he added. \u201cAll New Yorkers have a right to travel in our own city and access basic needs and opportunities regardless of ability to pay. Our mayor must seize this moment and transform Fair Fares so it works for millions of struggling New Yorkers now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Legal Aid Society on Friday took Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s NYPD to task, charging that it has maintained…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279961,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[107495,14927,301,31766,53892,9760,3045,22925,56532,141,9,24,63,103,107496,613,122,124,123,14328],"class_list":["post-279960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-bradley-weekes","tag-city-budget","tag-city-council","tag-danny-pearlstein","tag-fair-fares","tag-fare-evasion","tag-legal-aid-soceity","tag-mayor-zohran-mamdani","tag-modern-fare-gates","tag-mta","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-nypd","tag-phil-desgranges","tag-pm-newsletter","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-riders-alliance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279960\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}