Public bus, train and subway crime increased by about 12 percent in 2011, according to the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority’s Transit Police Department.
In 2011, Transit Police reported 6,885 crimes, or an increase of 712 crimes from 2010.
Increased ridership may account for the spike, said MBTA Transit Police Chief Paul MacMillan in an email to The Daily Free Press. In 2011, MBTA ridership reached record amounts – about 1.3 million trips per weekday in September.
Although violent crime remained mostly unchanged from 2010 to 2011, property crime increased by about 26 percent from the previous year, MacMillan said.
Most of the reported thieves showed a penchant for popular, high-end items, MacMillan said. IPhones were the most popular items stolen, he said, adding that thieves also targeted MBTA parking lots, bicycles and catalytic converters.
The thefts reflect a general trend toward items that are easily resold on a “secondary market,” he said.
The increase in property crime was headed specifically by a 28-percent increase in larcenies, which grew from 602 reported cases in 2010 to 771 cases in 2011.
MacMillan said even in light of last year’s numbers, “one theft or one assault is one too many” and the Transit Police always focus on creating a safe atmosphere for customers.
“We transport [more than] 1.3 million customers a day, [more than] 330 million customers all of last year,” he said. “So relatively speaking, the chance of being a victim of a crime on the MBTA is quite low.”
To minimize the chances of becoming a victim on the T, MacMillan said, customers should be more self-aware.
“The most important piece for reducing crime is that of customer awareness. Most crimes on the MBTA are crimes of opportunity,” MacMillan said. “If we enlist our customers to be more mindful of their surroundings and limit those opportunities, we will limit the amount of crime.”
More crimes were reported in South Station than in any other station last year, MacMillan said.
“South Station is one of the busiest and largest stations and one where, because of the interstate bus and trains, customers typically carry luggage and other personal belongings,” he said.
Crime continued to rise this January, MacMillan said, “partly driven by earlier catalytic converter thefts” from MBTA lots, although the MBTA saw a general “increase in robberies and aggravated assaults as well.”
MacMillan said the theft of smartphones will continue to present a challenge for the Transit Police as the proliferation of the devices grows “even more widespread,” especially since some T lines have gained cell phone reception.
The MBTA’s proposed fare increase probably will not impact crime rates, he said.
“Historically we have initially seen a decrease in ridership whenever a fare increase takes place,” MacMillan said. “The opportunities to commit a crime may be impacted somewhat.”
Noelle Cormier, a freshman in Boston University’s School of Education, said she rides the T about two times per week.
“Naturally, being a BU student, I ride the Green Line most often and I feel very safe . . . There are always a lot of people around and it’s mostly students, which I find comforting,” Cormier said.
Although she has never seen a crime occur on the T, Cormier said she is not surprised by the crime statistics because riders are usually not paying attention to their surroundings, “making it easy for thieves to take advantage of the situation.”
She and Daniel Traub, a freshman in BU’s College of Engineering, said the type of riders on the T impacts how safe they feel. The presence of students on a subway car makes the T feel more secure, he said.
“People are constantly carrying around more gizmos and gadgets than before, so there’s more temptation, more things to steal,” Traub said. “It’s safe, but I would never fall asleep on the T or let my belongings out of sight for an instant.”
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
