NYC subway safe? Fare beating arrests skyrocket 132%, gun seizures up 29%

It’s turnstile justice. Big Apple subway fare evasion arrests skyrocketed 132% in 2023, to 4,917 compared to 2,121 in 2022, reflecting the NYPD’s increased commitment to tackling turnstile jumpers and stopping the havoc they cause. And as enforcement increased, so did the number of guns and criminals cops pulled out of the subways.

The NYPD recovered 45 firearms from the subway system in 2023, compared to 35 the year before, a 29% spike, police data requested by The Post reveals. Of the 45 guns recovered, 24 were seized during encounters with fare beaters. In 2022, 11 of the 35 firearms came from such incidents. The figures also show that 1,462 fare beaters arrested in 2023 had an active warrant, 88% more than the 777 the year before.

The NYPD did not provide a breakdown of the serious crimes committed by the fare beating fugitives. “I applaud the crackdown on fare beaters,” community activist Karlin Chan, 69, who rides the N, Q and D trains, told The Post. Chan heads the nonprofit Chinatown Mural Project, which helped raise thousands of dollars to assist an injured woman who was shoved onto subway tracks in August.

“New York City needs to enforce quality of life issues. Non enforcement empowers thugs and emboldens them,” Chan said. Lori Grabowski, 56, of Hell’s Kitchen, who rides the 1, A, and C trains, agreed: “Any way you slice it, more cops equals more arrests, equals safer subways.” Much of the police progress in 2023 was built on the increase in cops on patrol on the subways rolled out by Mayor Adams and Gov.

Hochul in October 2022. Since last week, NYPD Transit derailed four suspected fare beaters who were packing heat or blades: Cops recovered a loaded firearm from a man nabbed on Jan. 3 for alleged fare beating in the Bronx, police said. Xavier Williams, 31, was arrested at the Brook Avenue 6 train subway station at East 138th Street in Mott Haven after an eagle eyed officer spotted him entering the station via an emergency gate, the NYPD said.

After cops finally fitted the suspect for handcuffs, they also found a loaded gun tucked in his waistband, authorities said. The following day, Jan. 4, at the Seventh Avenue/Ninth Street F station in Park Slope, Brooklyn, Jajuan Williams, 21, was caught trying to “manipulate” his way past a turnstile refused to provide ID, resisted arrest and injured a cop while being taken into custody, police sources said.

A search turned up a switchblade, cops said. Hours later, at the Franklin Avenue, A/C station in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, cops nabbed Brandon Cheek, 31, for suspected farebeating, police said, and recovered 38 decks of heroin and a loaded firearm from his waistband. The gun was reported stolen in Charleston, SC.

On Thursday morning, cops at the A/C Rockaway Avenue Station in Brownsville, Brooklyn, arrested Jacquan Kennedy, 35 of Brooklyn, after he was spotted walking through an emergency gate to beat the $2.90 fare, authorities said. The arresting officer recovered a firearm, a magazine containing six bullets, and crack cocaine, the NYPD said.

“Theft of Service isn’t the minor crime that some socialist City Council members want you to believe,” said Joseph Giacalone, a retired NYPD sergeant and adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. “Turnstile jumpers who think that the cops are watching are less likely to carry a firearm or other weapon.

Just look in the annals of NYC’s turnaround in the 1990s.” In June, Claude White, a homeless man accused of fatally stabbing subway passenger Tavon Silver on a southbound 4 train, was charged with the slaying — days after the hulking 6 foot 3, 320 pounder was caught trying to skip out on a subway fare in Harlem wearing blood stained pants, cops 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. “An integral part of the Transit Bureau’s overall safety strategy is curbing acts of lawlessness at our turnstiles, and that includes fare beating,” NYPD Transit Chief Michael Kemper told The Post.

“Enforcing seemingly minor but visible offenses like fare beating led to the recovery of 24 illegal guns from our subway system last year.” Kemper said cops “are showing the same level of commitment and dedication to subway safety in 2024,” having already recovered six guns from the subway system — four of those “from confronting fare evaders.” Echoed one veteran cop: “The bottom line is when a fare beater carrying a gun is stopped by police it makes the city and subways safer.”.