Views expressed in opinion columns are the author’s own.
Decriminalizing fare evasion on the Metro is long overdue. The D.C. City Council recently overrode Mayor Muriel Bowser’s veto of a bill that would make the penalty for fare evasion a $50 fine — far less severe than the current possibility of criminal charges, jail time and a fine of up to $300.
While there are concerns about the crime associated with fare evasion and the Metro’s perpetual struggles with budgeting shortfalls, the bill is a step forward for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority to stop getting hung up on prosecuting fare evasions and instead redirect their resources.
As any experienced Metro passenger knows, there isn’t much consistency in the persecution of fare evasion. People often go through the emergency door, pass through the turnstile after the person in front of them pays or hop the gates without punishment. In addition, some Metro stops have many more police officers monitoring the gates than others.
And when we look at who’s actually facing the consequences of fare evasion, it’s the same demographic consistently targeted by law enforcement. From January 2016 to February 2018, 91 percent of citations for fare evasion were issued to black people — largely under the age of 25 — when black residents only make up about half the population of D.C. The same study found “no evidence that Black people commit this crime at a higher rate than White people.”
There are many inconsistencies in how this law is enforced, and while decriminalizing fare evasion won’t stop inequities in law enforcement or transportation access, it at least removes one layer of the power imbalance that perpetuates these problems.
The potential punishments for fare evasion are so cruelly disproportionate to the crime that they barely make sense. The maximum fare for a one-way Metro trip is $6, but the penalty for dodging it is up to 50 times as much and carries the potential of a criminal record, which could affect opportunities for housing, employment and government benefits. Decriminalization brings the fine down to an amount comparable to that of a parking ticket, which seems like a reasonable magnitude of punishment.
Bowser and other opponents of decriminalization argue it would promote “lawlessness” and that many people arrested for fare evasion also commit more serious crimes. However, the number of serious crimes on the Metro system is at its lowest since 1999, while there were several incidences last year of Metro police violently arresting people for fare evasion. The focus seems to be on general anxieties about keeping order, rather than what’s pertinent to the Metro system.
Moreover, Metro police are trained to handle violent incidents and serious crimes, and the penalties for these crimes match their intensity. It doesn’t make sense to pre-emptively punish fare evaders for potentially committing a more serious crime with more severe penalties. They’re two separate incidents, and D.C. can deal with them as such, instead of trying to punish both at the same time and being rougher with people who commit a relatively benign act.
The decriminalization bill’s move forward is progress for D.C. and the Metro — especially as WMATA bled money during the government shutdown — and is a positive reinvestment of resources for the system. WMATA cracking down on people for avoiding a $6 fee in the same way it cracks down on people committing more serious crimes is a perverse perpetuation of our incarceration-happy justice system. Change has been a long time coming.
Hadron Chaudhary, opinion editor, is a junior English and geology major. They can be reached at chauds@umd.edu.
