Previously on SBPDL: Because 90% of Fare Evaders of Washington D.C. Metro Are Black, Campaign Underway to Decriminalize Fare Evasion to Fight “Racism”

Seattle is 65 percent white and only seven percent black. But as with any city in America with public transportation, standards governing civil behavior must be jettisoned when it comes to the anti-social behavior of blacks.

[Black passengers getting cited, punished disproportionately by Sound Transit fare enforcement, Seattle Times, October 4, 2019]:

When fare enforcement officers board a Sound Transit train, they begin at either end and work their way toward the middle. One by one, passengers tap their ORCA cards on handheld devices or show their tickets to prove they’ve paid.

The practice is designed to be unbiased, the agency says, a safeguard against potential profiling by officers.

But Sound Transit data shows this system is not preventing disproportionate punishment.

While 9% of people who ride light rail and Sounder commuter trains are black or African American, 22% of riders caught up in the fare enforcement system over the last four years were black, according to rider surveys and enforcement data collected by Sound Transit.

For black riders, the disproportionality grows as the punishment gets more severe, from warnings to $124 tickets to misdemeanor theft charges. About half of riders who in the last four years faced a misdemeanor for failing to pay fare were black.

Disparities — both by race and by income — have led politicians and transit agencies across the country to rethink fare enforcement, sometimes pitting social and racial justice advocates against publicly funded agencies anxious to appear fiscally responsible.

At Sound Transit, officials are aware of the disparities, but don’t yet have an explanation or solution. Some in the agency also say fare enforcement makes riders feel safer and therefore more likely to use the system.

“It’s certainly troubling,” said Sound Transit Chief of Staff Rhonda Carter. “It’s troubling to see pretty starkly what looks like a disparity.”

But the numbers don’t answer why people didn’t pay, Carter said. “Was it a wayfinding issue? Was it, ‘I literally don’t have the money?’ Was it, ‘I just forgot to tap for the third time this year?’ ”

Sound Transit plans to survey riders later this year.

Critics say the existing data proves the system is failing. Some question whether a public transit system should be punishing people who can’t afford to ride.

When light rail was built through Seattle’s Rainier Valley, “we were told it’s going to be an opportunity for people in our neighborhood to go downtown for jobs, an opportunity for enhancing our well-being,” said Gregory Davis, managing strategist at the Rainier Beach Action Coalition, one of dozens of organizations urging enforcement changes.

“If what comes out of it is a fare enforcement policy that in-debts our young people, that’s the opposite of what we were told the benefit would be,” Davis said.

Disparities worsen with tickets and misdemeanors

A small share of Sound Transit riders encounter fare enforcement each year and fewer still are warned, cited or charged. But disparities worsen with each step, with black riders receiving 19% of warnings, 43% of tickets and 57% of theft cases over four years.

ORDER IT NOW

Riders who don’t pay can get one warning and, if found again within a year, a $124 ticket, a second ticket, then a misdemeanor charge. In May, the agency quietly paused referring cases for misdemeanors. It’s unclear if the agency will permanently stop those referrals.