NCJ Number
80602
Date Published
1981
Length
60 pages
Annotation
This report provides a 1980 update of comparative data on crime and security problems associated with public transportation in the United States, Canada, Paris, and Singapore.
Abstract
Overall, 75 transit systems reported 517,313 transit-related offenses in 1980. Part II crimes, i.e., those of a less serious nature, represent the largest percentage of reported offenses and include a significant number of vandalism and fraud offenses. Frequent incidences of fraud were particularly noted on larger, multimode systems and subway systems using mechanical collection equipment. Part I crimes, i.e., those of a more serious nature, while numerous (36,913), represent only 6.5 percent of reported incidents. Within the Part I category, larceny offenses were most frequent (58.3 percent). However, when the systems were divided into groups based on passenger volume, differing crime problems appeared in correlation with transit size. In large systems, larceny and robbery were prevalent, while burglary was a more significant problem in medium-sized systems. Similarly, larceny and motor vehicle theft together represented 66.6 percent of reported Part I crimes in small transit systems. Comparative transit crime data for 1977 and 1980 were reported by 39 transit systems, with an increase of 21.3 percent for total reported transit crime in 1980. Increases were particularly high in all crime categories for New York, Chicago, and Miami. In contrast, decreases were reported by Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Montreal. The report offers four recommendations for enhancing passenger safety on public transportation: (1) intensive evaluation of security measures should be conducted on both a local and national basis, (2) more comprehensive security programming should be directed toward locally identified crime problems, (3) comprehensive security planning and programming should be based on accurate, uniform crime reporting procedures; and (4) followup surveys are needed to determine which measures have been successful in reducing transit crime and to establish baseline transit crime data for time comparisons and evaluation purposes. Tables, figures, and the survey forms are included. (Author summary modified)