SEPTA is upping penalties for smoking, urinating, drunkenness and other bad behavior on transit

SEPTA is intensifying enforcement against smoking, littering, public urination, and other offenses that, while not major crimes, turn riding public transit into an unpleasant experience.

Transit police officers will start issuing tickets with fines of up to $100 for violations of the Philadelphia city code on SEPTA vehicles and property, penalties backed up by the courts.

Antisocial behavior increased dramatically following the pandemic, contributing to a sense of disorder on the city’s transit system, even as major crimes are trending down.

“Psychologically, something happened,” SEPTA Police Chief Charles Lawson said in an interview. “We had otherwise law-abiding citizens that just fundamentally stopped paying their transit fare, for instance. We find ourselves in the position of really needing large-scale change, back to the proper behavior that we’re looking for in the system.”

To do that, SEPTA’s police force needed something “with a little more teeth,” the chief said.

Since 2019, SEPTA officers have handed out $25 “administrative enforcement notices” based on the agency’s conduct rules, fines rarely paid and with little deterrent effect.

Beginning July 1, hard copies of the misconduct tickets — formally Code Violation Notices — will be sent to city’s Office of Administrative Review (OAR). Offenders can pay the fine or request a hearing to fight the charge within 10 days.

From there, additional fines can be added for nonpayment, and the case could be bumped up to Municipal Court, with a maximum fine of $300, plus court costs.

The OAR also handles code violations for offenses like piled-up trash or illegal dumping. City government can put liens on property to recover fines if needed and failure to pay could even lead to an arrest warrant being issued for an offender, Lawson said.

Another advantage: OAR will administer the program and handle collection efforts, something that was a costly burden to SEPTA under the administrative-notice system.

Soon, the fine for smoking will be $100; for loitering, $25; for disorderly conduct, $50; and for blasting loud music with “amplified devices,” $75.

Transit police turned to the lighter approach under former chief Thomas Nestel because 80% of accused offenders did not show up in Municipal Court to answer the then-$300 tickets, as required. Officers also racked up a lot of overtime, Lawson said.

SEPTA’s police department has added officers and shifted more of its force to patrolling trains and stations, looking to detain and serve administrative notices on violators.

That has led to the discovery of hundreds of people who are carrying weapons or narcotics or have open warrants for their arrest, Lawson said. Between April 5 and June 5, transit police report detaining 130 people with arrest warrants — 76 wanted by Philadelphia, 51 wanted by other Pennsylvania counties, and three wanted by other states.

“It ends up targeting a lot of bad actors … people that we don’t want on the system” who commit more serious crimes, Lawson said.