SEPTA: Major crimes saw significant drop on Philly’s transit system in 2024

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SEPTA is touting a 33% drop in major crime on the transit system in 2024 compared to 2023, but officials say this is no time to rest on its recent success.

Transit Police Chief Chuck Lawson says adding more members to SEPTA’s police force played a role in the drop in incidents of crime.

“The bulk of our crime reduction occurred in violent crime, robberies, aggravated assaults, all down,” he said.

Lawson said the transit agency is “really proud of the teamwork” that it has taken to fight crime on the system. He credits what he calls a group of men and women who have “bought into the culture.” He said the department is “building on the goal to create the safest large transit agency in the country.”

Lawson said their goal is to make things even better, but to do that, part of the effort will be working with those who use the system as a home.

“We’ve taken the approach that we’re not a shelter,” he said. There’s “a large homeless population that moves through SEPTA,” but he said officers are not allowing them to stay on the buses, trains and trolleys indefinitely.

Lawson stressed that homelessness is “not a crime” and that SEPTA police will not treat those without a home as criminals, but there are some parts of the system, including the Market Frankford El through the Kensington area, where a lot of people who are unhoused enter the transit system.

“We believe in data and the data supports where the homeless are, and we’re going to flood those areas with cops to keep the homeless out of the system in a way that’s not criminal,” he said.

SEPTA is still increasing the number of officers working on the system. That includes more uniformed officers visible to the public and more undercover cops.

Lawson said they are still hiring officers and will petition the SEPTA board to give them more spending authority in the year to come to help improve security further.

He said officers will “focus on the low-level crimes that they really see every day on their commute, the smoking and open narcotics sales,” he said. He said cutting down on those low-level offenses can make a big impact this year to make riders feel safer.