The NYPD Spent $150 Million to Catch Farebeaters Who Cost the MTA $104,000

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Overtime pay for cops in New York's subway system increased from $4 million in 2022 to $155 million over the same period in 2023, according to an analysis by Gothamist.

If that sounds like an excessive amount of money to be spending on cops who are famously mostly on their phones or GETTING STURDY 😱👮🏼, that's probably because you don't believe in public safety. For your information, that extra $151 million in overtime spending, a nearly 4,000 percent cost increase and the result of adding 1,000 additional cops to patrol the subway system, bought us a whopping two percent decrease in "major" crime, amounting to a total of 48 fewer serious crimes like murder, rape, and robbery. The number of assaults on the subway, on the other hand, actually went up, raising the question of whether that decrease can even be attributed to the increased police presence underground. 

What did all that extra spending actually bring us? An increase in fare evasion enforcement: According to Gothamist, there were 1,900 more fare evasion arrests and 34,000 more summonses through September, up roughly 250 percent and 160 percent from 2022. That's about $4,200 in NYPD overtime pay per arrest or summons, and $151 million to hassle people whose total unpaid fares only amounted to about $104,000. What a bargain! The enforcement, as usual, was disproportionately doled out to non-white straphangers. 

NYPD Chief of Transit Michael Kemper told Gothamist that the negligible change in major crime rates belies the much more significant change of "tone" throughout the subway system. "It's about correcting behavior," Kemper said. "Stopping fare evaders sets the tone of law and order." A 151 million dollar vibe shift, if you will.

But even a former transit cop thinks having more officers in the subways is a waste of money. 

"The department tends to knee-jerk and flood an area with uniforms," James Dooley, now an assistant professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said. "It’s not very cost effective and eventually, people who commit crimes simply go to other stations or other times."

But while all those cops are down there, has anyone asked if they've got any tips for getting past level 10 of Geometry Dash?

Our tips for you, in the form of links:

• On Thursday, Mayor Adams admitted unaffordability is contributing to the exodus of New Yorkers from the city, but also kind of blamed it on rats: "Some people who have children and families decide they want to go to a place where their children can play outdoors, larger green spaces, you want to see animals—you don’t see animals except for rats in New York."
• And he also said some other weird stuff:

• NYPD officers killed 13 people in 2022, the most since 2012.
• Pro-Palestinian protestors last night interrupted an excruciatingly weird and boring-sounding talk about Israel between Congressmembers Ritchie Torres and Mike Lawler at the 92nd Street Y, which had already come under fire for canceling a talk by the author Viet Thanh Nguyen in October after he signed a letter objecting to "indiscriminate violence" by Israel against Palestinians in Gaza.
• Gothamist's review of Department of City Planning documents showed 2,600 new NYC apartments have been scrapped from development plans since 2022, at times due to NIMBY complaints from local residents.
• Relatedly, a Park Slope neighborhood group is fighting against a 13-story housing development on Prospect Avenue, saying it's "incompatible with the context of the neighborhood."
• Another municipal union is very upset at Eric Adams: NYC's largest teachers's union is also now suing the mayor over cuts to the school budget.
• Days after being ordered to pay nearly $150 million in a defamation lawsuit, Rudy Giuliani is filing for bankruptcy.
• "Nobody wants to be there at all. They’re desperate to be anywhere else." The New York Times investigated the failures of Kendra's Law.
• A fire in a Sunnyside, Queens, building this week that injured 14 people was caused by a contractor torching the metal door of a vacant unit.
• How are food delivery app companies reacting to new legislation mandating higher wages for their workers have gone into place? One reporter got on his bike and delivered an order, encountering lockouts and disincentivized tipping. 
• Delicious: Some NYC Chick-fil-A locations may be forced to stay open on Sundays, unlike our public libraries.
• "More Adams donors with ties to Turkey emerge amid FBI corruption probe."
• Outgoing City Councilmember Charles Barron said in an interview with Politico that Adams has been "profoundly disappointing."
• A "luxury public bathroom" is opening in Herald Square, and Santa Claus gets to use it first.