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The Crime of Being Short $2.75: Policing Communities of Color at the Turnstile.
Harold Stolper, Jeff Jones
Summary: In the first three months of 2017, the NYPD has arrested 4,600 people for fare evasion, an overwhelming 90 percent of them black or Hispanic. In Brooklyn in 2016, young black men (ages 16-36) made up half of all fare evasion arrests, but represent only 13.1 percent of poor adults. This sort of “broken windows” policing of low-level crimes of poverty has disproportionately targeted poor communities of color—criminalizing young black men in Brooklyn at alarmingly high rates.
Our latest report, "The Crime of Being Short $2.75: Policing Communities of Color at the Turnstile" examines fare evasion arrest data from public defender organizations and finds that, in Brooklyn, poor black communities have higher arrest rates for jumping the turnstile than other areas of Brooklyn, even when accounting for poverty and crime.
Issues: Economic Mobility & Security, Legal Justice, Workforce
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