Crime on SEPTA drops in first half of 2025, report says

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- SEPTA says it has rolled out a safer first half of the year, according to a new report released on Tuesday.

Serious crime has remained low, the report says. That includes a reduction in homicides, aggravated assaults, thefts and arsons.

SEPTA Police Chief Chuck Lawson says they did see, what he called an odd spike in robberies in January and February.

Officers worked to bring that number down over the last couple of months.

"Made some changes to deployment, made some effective arrests to some pattern offenders," Lawson said.

The chief says data also shows increased enforcement for "quality of ride" offenses, like smoking and fare evasion.

Transit police issued more than 4,300 citations for fare evasion this year, which is up 74 percent for the same six-month period in 2024

"Those areas that our customers complain about the most are what we're hyper-focused on, and that level of focus and priority is showing that it has impacted serious crime on the system," Lawson said.

Meanwhile, reports by customers to the SEPTA Transit Watch app for those quality of ride issues have declined.

To continue this trend, police will continue to beef up visible patrols and use of new technology, including full-length fare gates.

That system will be expanding to nine additional stations.