Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance's office has announced that it will largely stop prosecuting fare evasion in the New York City subway system.
The D.A.'s office began implementing the policy earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. Vance had previously announced the intended change in late June. He aims to replace criminal prosecution by issuing more summons instead of arresting turnstile jumpers, and those who are arrested will have the opportunity to enter a diversionary program.
Those who do not participate in the program will be arraigned for the misdemeanor offense and their case will be active for up to six months.
"Isn't it smarter to have someone actually sit down with a kid and find out what's going on than to simply process them through the system?" Vance asked.
New York Police Department officials were surprised at the move, claiming they had discussed the change with Vance but did not expect to begin implementation so soon.
Going after fare evasion was once a key feature of the policing strategy known as "broken windows policing." First made popular in a 1982 Atlantic essay by political scientist James Q. Wilson and criminologist George Kelling, the theory argues that police can contribute to the overall well-being of a community by proactively policing minor crimes that contribute to public disorderliness. The broken windows strategy was central to former NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton's clean up of New York City in the 1990s.
Bratton, now retired, told the Journal that he worries fare evasion will increase in the coming months, as Vance had moved to end prosecutions before the overall policy had been implemented
"They already have people thinking you're not going to arrest people anymore," Bratton said.
Bratton is not the only one critical of Vance's new policy. Proponents of criminalizing fare evasion argue that it helps make the subway system safer. The Journal noted that felonies in the subway system declined 43 percent from 2000 to 2016.
Proponents of Vance's change, however, argue that prosecuting turnstile jumping unfairly targets the poor and people of color. In 2016, 26,000 people were arrested for jumping a turnstile, approximately 89 percent of whom were black or Hispanic. Others worry that arrests for fare evasion may lead to deportation for illegal immigrants.
Two Democrats in the New York State Legislature would like to go farther. Sen. Jesse Hamilton and Assemblywoman Tremaine Wright in March introduced legislation to decriminalize fare evasion under state law.