Nearly half of NYC fare-evaders arrested this year had open warrants for other crimes — including at least one accused killer.
Of the 2,502 people cuffed for fare beating this year, 1,136 — or just over 45% — were already being sought for arrest when they tried to hitch a free ride on the city’s transit system, according to disturbing new NYPD data obtained by The Post.
NYPD Transit Chief Michael Kemper told the MTA Board Monday that fare-beaters nabbed this year also had warrants for weapon possession, felony assault, and drugs.
Many fare-beaters also came strapped — with more than 200 caught carrying deadly weapons, including 13 guns and over 200 knives, Kemper told the MTA Board.
“The people in the system committing crimes are not lining up to get a MetroCard,” said Eugene O’Donnell, a John Jay College of Criminal Justice prof and a former cop and prosecutor. “They’re accessing the system almost invariably by not paying.
“The old idea was that routinely fare evasion [enforcement] was a way to ferret out more serious misconduct,” O’Donnell said. “People were caught with guns, people were caught with warrants, people were caught who had just committed crimes who were in hot flight from those crimes, hopping the turnstiles.”
The shocking numbers come a month after Claude White, a homeless man accused of fatally stabbing Tavon Silver to death last month on a southbound 4 train, was charged — days later after he was caught trying to skip out on a subway fare in Harlem wearing blood-stained pants, cops said.
White, 33, was squabbling with Silver, 32, over drugs, then grabbed a steak knife Silver had on him, and plunged it twice into his chest, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said this week. White then tossed the knife into the subway tunnel, threw his shirt in the trash, and fled the 23rd Street station, Bragg said.
White, who had been on parole and was wanted in connection with a bank robbery on June 6, now faces murder and weapon charges.
In another case, evading a bus fare led cops to collar an alleged serial subway slasher.
Kemal Rideout allegedly stabbed three women at random — two at the 86th Street and Lexington Avenue station and a third on a southbound 4 train near the Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall station on June 19.
Similar to White, Rideout also had a long rap sheet including attempted rape, assault, and criminal mischief charges.
Not only were both White and Rideout, 28, arrested after fare beating — they were also nabbed by the same four officers.
“A decision was made to infuse more cops into the subway” following the pair of arrests, Kemper said at the time.
However, increased police enforcement on the subway will have little effect if there are no consequences for those who break the law, experts said.
“Once the bad guys know cops are looking at these things and they’re going to lock people up for jumping the turnstile, then it will deter people” Joseph Giacalone, a retired NYPD sergeant and adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said. “But if you’re not going to prosecute . . . it doesn’t mean anything.”
“The police should do it no matter what the DA is going to do because you’re going to get guns off the street, knives off the street, you’re going to keep riders safe,” he added.
Meanwhile, the MTA has been quietly implementing surveillance technology in some stations, using artificial intelligence to spot fare-beaters, according to an MTA report published in May. The system is meant to collect fare beating data and does not notify police in real time of fare evaders.
The MTA, which lost more than $500 million to fare evasion last year, is cracking down on fare-beaters on buses and replacing the locks on more than 1,600 subway tunnel emergency gates, according to the agency’s latest monthly Key Performance Metrics report released this week.
Turnstiles across the city are also expected to be modified over the next two years to prevent “back-cocking,” which is when fare-evaders pull the turnstile back enabling them to walk through without paying, a Transit official said Monday.
The MTA was considering other solutions to stop fare-beaters including putting a sleeve on turnstiles that adds height to the bar, making it more difficult to hop over.
