Hagerty Calls for Heightened Safety Standards on Public Transit

Crime on public transit wastes taxpayer dollars and puts passengers in danger

WASHINGTON-Today, Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) introduced the Safe Transit Act, a bill aimed at penalizing the oversight of crime and misconduct on public transit.

Lax public transit safety measures waste hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars each year and pose a serious threat to transit users. Yet some of the nation's most robust and frequently used transit systems - especially those in blue states - do not have adequate security protocols in place to keep their passengers safe.

Every city that receives federal funding for transit should have to prove that it is protecting its passengers and combatting crime. The Safe Transit Act incentivizes public transit systems to adopt more robust crime prevention measures and creates a safety performance benchmark, ensuring each system is held to the same standard. Most importantly, the bill withholds federal funds from transit systems that fail to meet the proposed benchmarks and safety protocols.

"Too many Democrat-led cities and states take taxpayer dollars while letting crime run rampant on public transit. This must end," said Hagerty. "My legislation would direct federal funding to communities that actually protect passengers and promote public safety. It's time to put Americans' safety first."

"Under President Trump's leadership, we've used every tool in our toolbox to make transit systems safer, cleaner, and more family-friendly. Our work has slashed fare evasion, increased law enforcement patrols, and reduced crime - including right here in our nation's capital. But for the stubborn states, cities, and systems that refuse to meet basic safety standards, we need more flexibility to hold them accountable," said U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. "I want to thank Senator Hagerty for leading this critical legislation and ensuring hardworking-taxpayer dollars deliver transit systems that Americans can be proud of."

The Safe Transit Act would:

• Allow the Department to withhold 100 percent of federal funds to cities and local governments that fail to criminalize fare evasion, ban violent offenders from transit systems, or allow personal recognizance and cash-free release for transit crimes.
• Require transit agencies in urban areas to invest at least 3 percent of federal formula funding into safety and crime prevention initiatives, including lighting improvements, security cameras, emergency call boxes, and protective barriers for bus drivers.
• Authorize the Department to withhold up to 50 percent of federal transit funding from cities with crime rates significantly higher than the national transit average.
• Establish binding nationwide performance standards for physical turnstiles, gates, and fare collection infrastructure to stop fare jumpers.
• Require all new federally funded buses and rail vehicles to be equipped with inward- and outward-facing security cameras and event recorders.

The full text of the bill can be found here.

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