Serious crime at and around Montgomery County’s Metrorail and bus stops jumped 11 percent over a two-year period, a new county report that combines statistics from Metro and county police shows.
Metro’s police department reported a 37.5 percent increase in serious crimes, ranging from theft to aggravated assault, at Montgomery County’s Metro-owned properties from 2006 to 2008.
The station with the most crime was the Shady Grove stop, which accounted for 20 percent of the 291 crimes, both serious and minor, reported to the Transit Police in 2008. That was down from 24 percent in 2007.
The majority of the crimes were larceny, or theft without the owner present.
Statistics from the county’s police department, which shares jurisdictions over Metro-owned property in the county, show a 14 percent decrease in serious transit-related crimes in the same two-year period. The county’s police statistics indicate that most of the transit-related crimes it responded to occurred at bus stops and Metro parking lots.
County police noted in the report that there were additional crimes committed that could be considered transit-oriented, but are not easily identified as such in their records.
There were 358 reported serious transit-related crimes in 2008, the report said.
Former County Council member Don Praisner, who died earlier this year, commissioned the office of legislative oversight to compile data from Metro’s Transit Police, county police and the Takoma Park Police to get an idea of transit-related crime in the county.
The report noted that the county government places a great emphasis on encouraging public transit, and “the perception of crime can deter people from using public transportation” even though transit-related crimes are a tiny slice of the more than 70,000 crimes reported in the county each year.
The report noted that the county government places a great emphasis on encouraging public transit, and “the perception of crime can deter people from using public transportation” even though transit-related crimes are a tiny slice of the more than 70,000 crimes reported in the county each year.
Metro recently added 20 cameras trained on areas outside a dozen stations in the District and Fairfax County to help prevent crime. Neither Montgomery County nor Prince George’s County opted to pay for outward-looking cameras, citing the high cost. The District paid $200,000 for the cameras and Fairfax paid $75,000.
Metro spokeswoman Cathy Asato said the agency plans to install one camera at each Metro stop entrance with funds from a $2.8 million federal grant. Metro already has cameras on rail platforms and gate areas.
Asato said Metro supports additional external cameras if local jurisdictions are willing to pay for them.
