Charges Of Racial Profiling After Two Harlem Straphangers Were Issued Summonses For Fare Evasion

Reigniting longstanding accusations by civil rights activists that minority straphangers are unfairly targeted by the NYPD for fare-beating cases, the Daily News reports that a black New York University professor was issued a summons for fare evasion last month at a Harlem subway station despite, telling officers that the MetroCard machines were broken.

The incident occurred at the same subway station where another subway rider had previously claimed he was racially targeted by police, and ultimately wound up filing a lawsuit against the city and NYPD.

After following up on both of those cases, the Legal Aid Society is now calling for an investigation of the NYPD for disproportionately policing minority neighborhoods for fare evasion.

Terrance Coffie, a former prison inmate who eventually went on to earn a masters degree from NYU and now teaches community policing and discretionary enforcement, was issued a summons on January 11th at the A/C/B/D station at 125th Street.

Coffie told the Daily News that he decided to bypass the turnstile only after realizing that the MetroCard machines were not working. He said other morning commuters did the same.

After walking through the emergency exit, he was eventually approached by four plainclothes police officers. Upon explaining that the MetroCard machines were broken, he said one of the officers said that the NYPD and MTA were aware of that.

"That's when the situation really kicked in," Coffie told the News. "Are you saying to me that you are consciously aware that there is a malfunction, but instead of assisting the patrons, what you chose to do is be in a disclosed location to surveil the situation and issue summonses?"

Coffie says he tried to reach for his phone to record the interaction, but was ordered to remove his hands from his pockets and threatened with being handcuffed, according to the Daily News.

Roughly two weeks earlier, at the same station, the NYPD mistakenly issued a summons for the same offense against an Asian American man. John Tran went on to appeal the summons at the Transit Adjudication Bureau in Downtown Brooklyn, where the MTA’s computer system showed that he had swiped his card two minutes before police officers said they saw him evade the fare.

Tran, who was able to record the interaction on video, is currently suing the city, the New York Police Department and the three police officers who falsely accused him of breaking the law, for violating his civil rights with a “quota-driven and race-based policing” practice. Last month, he told Gothamist that he believed that his predominately black and Hispanic West Harlem neighborhood along with his attire that day, consisting of a beanie, puffy coat, along with sweatpants and sneakers, played a role in how he was treated by police.

Tran's attorney, Kathleen Linnane, said she was contacted by the Legal Aid Society regarding her client's case. On February 25th, Legal Aid wrote a letter to the NYPD's Office of Inspector General requesting an investigation into the department's policing strategy and raised the use of “fare evasion strike teams," noting Tran's experience at the same subway station. The letter also quotes a reader's comment on the Gothamist story about Tran, which suggests the Metrocard machines have been chronically broken:

“This is my daily subway stop. What’s particularly infuriating is that for the last 6 months the vending machines have always been malfunctioning: either the touch screens don’t work or they won’t accept cash or credit card or vice versa. On at least two occasions, I’ve had to jump the turnstile or risk being late for work.”

Linnane said she hopes Legal Aid's call for an investigation draws the attention of Mayor Bill de Blasio.

"It’s a major issue," she said. "This 1980s style of policing is against the law."

The city has yet to respond to Tran's lawsuit. However, a hearing date of April 1st has been set. Under city law, Tran must submit to a deposition, a criminal background check as well as a physical exam. Such requirements seem invasive and unfair in Tran's case, Linnane said.

"John was the one racially targeted," she said. "He should not be the one going through this.

A Marshall Project investigation co-published with Gothamist last summer found that neighborhoods that are predominately black and Hispanic are often also home to precincts with high arrest rates for turnstile offenses. Arrests for turnstile violations have dropped in recent years, following an announcement by Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance that his office would stop prosecuting most fare evasion cases.

In 2017, the City Council passed a law requiring the NYPD to release detailed breakdowns of both fare evasion summonses and arrests by race, age and gender for every subway station in the city. But according to Linnane, the NYPD still has not provided full and complete data on summonses and arrests by subway station, including the one where Tran and Coffie were stopped.