SEPTA officially names a new police chief amid concerns of transit system crime

SEPTA appointed a new chief for the Transit Police Friday, the transit agency reported, promoting a veteran officer who has spent his entire career in the department.

Charles “Chuck” Lawson has been acting chief of the department of about 215 sworn officers since July, when he replaced Thomas Nestel.

“Chuck’s three decades of dedication to the Authority makes him the ideal candidate to address the challenges we face on our system every day,” said Leslie Richards, SEPTA general manager and CEO. “Under his leadership, we will continue to enhance our safety and security efforts, ensuring the best environment for our employees and riders.”

Lawson, who will make about $180,000 a year, is SEPTA’s first chief to rise through the ranks to the top job. He takes the reins amid staff shortages and surging crime rates on the transit system, which includes buses, trolleys, subways, and trains connecting Philadelphia and its four surrounding counties.

Robberies and aggravated assaults on the transit system increased more than 80% from 2019 to 2021, despite the pandemic and working from home reducing SEPTA’s ridership. Crime numbers remained high in the first quarter of 2023, according to data from the agency. There were 100 robberies on SEPTA’s system in the first three months of this year, a 72% increase compared to the same period last year, SEPTA reported. The 32 aggravated assaults reported in the first quarter this year were an improvement compared to a year earlier, but still more than in 2021.

Lawson has sought to increase the presence of patrol officers on the system.

“I want to get these folks in the field, seen by more of our customers during the day,” he said.

SEPTA benefited from the Fashion District Mall’s ban on unaccompanied minors after 2 p.m., Lawson said. SEPTA has four Market Street stations on the Market-Frankford Line that are either adjacent to or a few blocks away from the Fashion District.

The system is also contending with an increase of people who are homeless or under the influence of drugs on transit vehicles.

“Homelessness, mental health, and addiction,” Lawson said in an interview, listing the complicated, though often not illegal, conditions transit officers must address. “Post-pandemic those numbers have just exploded across the system.”

Transit officers can remove people from vehicles without charging them criminally, and they are conducting 1,800 removals a week, Lawson said. That’s more than twice as many as before the pandemic, he said.

The Transit Police have about 30 openings for sworn officers, Lawson said, which would return the department to a full staffing level. He anticipates 21 new officers will graduate from the academy and start working for the department this summer.

“We’ll be able to hit more trains,” he said. “We’ll be able to hit areas that are not policed as frequently.”

Lawson, a 29-year veteran of the transit police force, began as a patrol officer and rose to the rank of inspector before being named acting chief. He is a married father of two children, and lives in Evesham.

Nestel, Lawson’s predecessor, had a rocky relationship with the department’s rank and file.

In March 2021, SEPTA’s police officers returned a nearly unanimous vote of no confidence in Nestel, arguing the chief’s patrol deployments were inadequate and that his policies made it harder to arrest suspects. Lawson has already earned the respect of officers because of his long history with the department, said Omari Bervine, a transit police officer and president of the union, FOTP Lodge 109.

“That’s definitely something the guys don’t take for granted,” Bervine said. “He understands transit policing, which is always a plus.”