Rise in crime on LIRR could be scaring off some riders, Lieber says 

MTA officials said they are taking new measures to address a rise in crime on the Long Island Rail Road that the agency’s leader said could be deterring some commuters from returning to the system.

With major crimes having increased 7% in 2021 compared with 2020, and being up 71% the first three months of this year compared with the same period last year, Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials have ordered increased MTA Police patrols on trains and stations in Nassau and Suffolk counties. The MTA also has assigned a police emergency service and a K-9 unit to Long Island.

MTA chairman and CEO Janno Lieber said the authority “will take a look” at putting extra measures in place at locations where “additional crime is taking place.”

The mass shooting onboard a Brooklyn subway train on April 12 brought a heightened focus to the issue of safety in the transit system, but Lieber noted that, “As horrific as it was, it was only one of many high-profile, and some lower-profile crimes that have our customers feeling unsafe these days, or just uncomfortable in the system. The trends are worrisome.”

MTA Police statistics confirm that crime already had been on the rise throughout the system, including on the LIRR. Through March, 24 crimes were reported in the LIRR system, up from 14 during the same period in 2021. The railroad saw felonies increase in four out of seven categories, including murder. On Feb. 16, a 20-year-old man was fatally shot on a train as it waited to depart from the Ronkonkoma station. No arrest has been made in the case, the LIRR’s first shooting death in 28 years.

MTA Police Assistant Chief Sean Montgomery said the 1,100-member force will look to step up patrols of trains and stations in “relevant areas,” including Babylon, Mineola and Hicksville.

“I think the first priority for railroad customers is to feel safe. They have to feel safe traveling on the trains … And seeing a cop, a uniformed police person, is how they get to feel more comfortable and safer,” said Lieber, who believes recent concerns about crime have contributed to ridership plateauing after growing steadily throughout 2021.

“The folks that are riding the rails … are hearing and perceiving a lot of the same issues that we’re hearing from our customers on New York City Transit" subway trains, he said.

LIRR ridership stalls

LIRR ridership, after increasing steadily throughout 2021, has stalled at just over 50% of pre-pandemic levels. The MTA's ridership projections — as developed by an outside consultant in 2020 — estimated that 75% of riders would have been back by now.

"Our customers' decreasing sense of safety and security may be contributing to the plateauing numbers that we're seeing," Lieber said at a meeting last month.

Through March, MTA Police made 240 arrests across both the authority’s two commuter railroad systems, the LIRR and Metro-North, up from 140 in the first three months of 2021.

At a meeting of the MTA Board last month, Montgomery detailed some of the crimes that occurred in the LIRR system in March: a rider having his cellphone snatched from him as he descended from the Hicksville station platform; a person slicing another’s ear during a fight at the Wyandanch station; a stabbing incident in Ronkonkoma; and a pair of grand larcenies that police attributed to “customers onboard not paying proper attention to their items.”

Addressing the onboard thefts, Montgomery said the additional cops on trains will help make clear that “if you’re going to try to do that you might actually meet up with the law.”

The rise in crime on the LIRR has coincided with an increase in ridership from the pandemic lows of 2020, when as few as 3% of the railroad’s regular passengers were taking the train. But MTA Police statistics show that it’s not simply a matter of more riders resulting in a higher likelihood for crime. 

Even though the LIRR is carrying fewer than half as many riders as it did in 2019, crime is up 26% through March compared with the first three months of that year.

Penelope Owens, of West Babylon, who commuted on the LIRR for around 30 years before COVID-19, said concerns about violence are among the reasons she has avoided returning to the rails. 

“I feel it’s a lot more dangerous now. I was never scared to go into the city … but now you’ve really got your guard up,” said Owens, who has noticed an increase in aggressive panhandling both in Penn Station and her home station of Babylon. 

In a customer survey released in December, respondents’ primary complaint was “the number of people panhandling, experiencing mental illness or homelessness” at LIRR stations.

State Sen. Phil Boyle (R-Bay Shore) said he’s pushed the MTA for years to step up police patrols at the Babylon station, where he regularly receives complaints of “belligerent” people.

“We’ve heard a lot of talking from the MTA, but not enough action … I think they’ve increased the [police] presence, but, clearly, not enough,” said Boyle, who wants to see a dramatic increase in the policing of LIRR trains and station platforms, as the NYPD has done on city subway trains. “I think a similar tactic could be used to protect Long Island Rail Road riders.”

Challenges of policing 'a 24-7 system'

Gerard Bringmann, chairman of the LIRR Commuter Council — the railroad’s state-regulated rider advocacy group — said expectations over the MTA Police’s ability to address crime in the LIRR system must be realistic, given that the railroad system has 126 stations stretching from Manhattan to Montauk.

“And it’s a 24-7 system, seven days a week, and they work eight-hour shifts. You start doing the math. There’s not a lot of cops to put on the trains,” said Bringmann, who noted the MTA has hired 500 additional cops since 2019.

Bringmann also said that significantly ramping up police presence at stations also could serve to heighten some riders’ concerns.

“Unfortunately, the average commuter actually gets nervous when they see a cop at their station,” Bringmann said. “It’s like, you see a cop on the platform and you think, ‘What’s going on?’ And if you see a cop with a dog on the platform, it doesn’t give you a warm and fuzzy feeling.”

Bringmann noted that the LIRR also has increased security in recent years by installing security cameras on almost all its trains, and at many stations.

By Alfonso A. Castillo

alfonso.castillo@newsday.com@alfonsoreports

Alfonso Castillo has been reporting for Newsday since 1999 and covering the transportation beat since 2008. He grew up in the Bronx and Queens and now lives in Valley Stream with his wife and two sons.