Muni riders who feel safer on the transit system's buses, trains and cable cars aren't imagining things: Crime on Muni is down 30 percent since October, when the Municipal Transportation Agency and San Francisco police began putting more uniformed cops on transit, according to a report to be released Monday.

The most impressive drop is in smartphone thefts, which have declined nearly 77 percent from a high last May, when 109 phones were reported snatched from Muni riders. In March of this year, 25 phones were reported stolen from passengers.

Overall crime on Muni declined from a high of 284 incidents in October to 201 last month, according to the report.

"Having more uniformed SFPD on buses has proven to be a tremendous deterrent to crime as evidenced by the drastic drop in robberies on Muni all over the city, and with regard to crime on historical problem routes," said San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr.

The report from the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Authority is good news for the much-criticized transit system, which carries 700,000 passengers on an average weekday.

Armed with a $1 million federal grant, the surge in officers riding Muni began in October, shortly after a much publicized incident in which a man on a Muni Metro train shot to death a San Francisco State University student he chose at random. Muni video showed the man openly wielding the gun aboard the train while passengers, transfixed by their phones, failed to call police or alert the operator.

When city officials announced the program in November, Ed Reiskin, the city's transportation director, said the grant from the Department of Homeland Security would allow the agency to put 10,000 hours' worth of additional policing aboard Muni, at least until the middle of this year.

Suhr declined to disclose how many officers were riding Muni, when or on which lines, saying he wanted to preserve the element of surprise. He said last fall that the MTA and his department would review the results of the increased police presence in June, determine its effectiveness and decide whether to seek new funding.

Paul Rose, an MTA spokesman, said Friday that the program will continue until the money runs out, but said its future was uncertain.

Reiskin said it was clear that putting more police on transit is having the desired effect.

"This partnership has not only made it safer to ride Muni but is essential to deterring criminal activity in San Francisco," Reiskin said. "While enforcement is a vital component to public safety, Muni passengers also play a large part in preventing opportunities for crime."

About the same time the police surge started, Muni unleashed a public campaign - "Eyes up, phones down" - to get riders to put away their smartphones and other electronics when riding Muni and to be more aware of what's going on around them.

Despite the decline in smartphone thefts, Suhr urged Muni riders to remain vigilant - and to keep their electronics in their pockets.

"We can be even more successful if riders would be more aware of their surroundings when using electronic devices," he said. "Maybe read a book while on Muni and wait to use your electronic devices. We have no issues with book theft on Muni."