Straphangers know that anything can happen on the New York City subway, and unfortunately, that can include an array of crimes. But some subway stations are more dangerous than others, according to a recent report.
The Auto Insurance Center looked at publicly available 2017 crime data to see which New York City subway stations were home to the most criminal activity.
The report looks at subway crime inside and outside of the turnstiles. The report includes criminal activity within 100 feet of each subway stop to make sure crimes affecting those entering or exiting stations were counted, as well as data on crimes that specially occurred within a public transportation station.
When it comes to crimes around New York City subway stations, Atlantic Ave-Barclays Center is the most dangerous area, with 334 crimes reported within a 100-foot radius of the stop’s 2, 3, 4 and 5 lines. No crimes actually took place within the subway station itself, though, according to the report.
But some New York City subway stations do see a lot of crime once inside the turnstiles. Data shows that 330 crimes occurred at 42nd St – Port Authority Bus Terminal, 275 of which happened inside the stop.
Those crimes may be mostly within the Port Authority bus station, rather than the subway area, per the report, but data doesn’t specify where exactly within a transportation hub the offenses happened.
At 3rd Ave – 149th St there were 311 total crimes, according to 2017 data, with 207 of those occurring inside the Bronx subway station.
Times Square – 42nd Street came in fourth for overall crime, but second in terms if crimes around the station rather than inside. That subway stop was home to 262 crimes total, with less than 50 crimes actually occurring within the station walls.
Rounding out the top five New York City subway stations for crime was Jay St – MetroTech, which saw 269 crimes, 207 of which happened inside the Brooklyn stop.
Types of Crime in New York City subway stations
What sort of crimes are people committing inside these New York City subway stations? Grand larceny comes in at number one, according to the report, with 1,621 instances within the New York City subway in 2017. That accounts for 13.6 percent of all New York City crime that year.
Criminal mischief comes in second with 1,431 such instances in 2017, followed by forgery with 1,337 offenses.
Assault and related offenses were also frequent, with 1,243 reports within the subway in 2017, as was harassment, which accounted for 1,003 crimes.
While overall crime in New York City is down, transit crime has actually seen a bit of an increase this year, according to NYPD data.
As of Sunday, Nov. 25, there have been 2,239 major transit crimes year-to-date, according to the NYPD. That’s a just-under 1 percent increase from the same time period in 2017, which saw 2,218 total transit crimes.
