{"id":737,"date":"2026-06-29T09:38:04","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T09:38:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=737"},"modified":"2026-06-29T09:38:04","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T09:38:04","slug":"most-metro-fare-evasion-cases-in-d-c-are-thrown-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=737","title":{"rendered":"Most Metro Fare Evasion Cases in D.C. Are Thrown Out"},"content":{"rendered":"
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At 7:46 a.m. last Wednesday, Metro Transit Police stopped and cited someone for failing to pay their fare at the Anacostia Metro station in Southeast D.C. About 26 minutes later at the same station, another person was stopped for the same offense. All told, there were 41 such stops that day at stations across D.C.<\/p>\n

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Every day, MTPD officers stop and write tickets for dozens of people for failing to pay their fare in the Metro system. As of mid-June, the transit agency had recorded 9,745 cases this year, 6,270 of which happened in D.C.<\/p>\n

Getting caught skipping out on paying your fare on rail or bus in the city could cost you a $50 fine \u2014 but in most cases, that doesn\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n

The issue stems from a combination of factors, including how D.C. punishes fare evasion, Metro\u2019s status as an intergovernmental agency that can slip through the city\u2019s administrative cracks, and errors in how Metro\u2019s police officers themselves have issued the citations.<\/p>\n

With thousands of citations being summarily dismissed and few people actually subject to the fine for fare evasion, the city\u2019s existing law is essentially toothless.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a big problem,\u201d said Ward 1 Council member Brianne Nadeau. \u201cIf people don\u2019t think there will be consequences, if they don\u2019t think the ticket will be enforced, then they don\u2019t feel deterred by the ticketing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Metro has been pushing to reduce the number of citations it issues, especially in the city. While there\u2019s no reliable count of how many fare evasion citations have been dismissed, a person with knowledge of the situation told NOTUS that over the past two years, it likely numbers in the thousands.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know that there has been a citation that has gone through full adjudication,\u201d said the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to comment publicly.<\/p>\n

In 2018, the D.C. Council decriminalized fare evasion<\/u><\/span>, bumping it from a crime that fetched a $300 fine and up to 10 days in jail down to a civil offense punishable by a $50 fine. Lawmakers took the step over concerns that a relatively minor transgression could leave someone with a criminal record<\/u><\/span>. (It remains a criminal offense in Maryland and Virginia.)<\/p>\n

But in the years that followed, civil citations were rarely handed out \u2014 largely because Metro had no means to stop anyone and require them to provide their real name and address<\/u><\/span>. The Council changed that in 2024<\/u><\/span>, giving Metro Transit Police more power to issue the citations, which are supposed to be adjudicated by the D.C. Office of Administrative Hearings, an independent quasi-judicial body that handles tickets issued by city agencies for everything from poor housing conditions to illegal dumping.<\/p>\n

Those changes coincided with a significant uptick in fare evasion enforcement on Metro, which included the installation of taller fare gates<\/u><\/span> but also more stops by Metro Transit Police. According to , there were 297 citations for fare evasion on the transit system in D.C., Maryland, and Virginia in 2021, before jumping to 16,181 three years later. According to NBC 4, more than 21,000 fare evasion citations were issued last year<\/u><\/span>.<\/p>\n

Randy Clarke, Metro\u2019s general manager, said the uptick in fare evasion enforcement serves various purposes, including helping the agency\u2019s bottom line.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt creates the revenue we can use to go do stuff,\u201d he said in an interview with Statecraft last year<\/u><\/span>. \u201cI know a lot of people go, \u2018No, no, no, everything should be free.\u2019 Well, great \u2014 that\u2019s a larger public policy conversation, but right now it\u2019s not. The money that people pay \u2014 those user fees \u2014 are incredibly important \u2026 to run the system, to have frequent, safe, reliable service, but also to have police officers and station managers and gates work.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the issuance of fare evasion citations \u2014 and the $50 fine they carry \u2014 has been rocky in D.C., so much so that OAH has taken to dismissing most of the citations it receives.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s largely because of errors in how the citations were written and submitted to OAH by Metro Transit Police officers, but there\u2019s also been disagreement between D.C. and Metro over who should show up at OAH to prosecute the fare evasion cases. (In other cases, the D.C. agency that issues the citation appears at the hearing, which functions like a trial, to justify and defend it.)<\/p>\n

None of these problems are new. Late last year, OAH told the Council that it had stopped accepting citations from Metro in mid-December 2024, and more recently added that it had \u201cmade the policy decision to spend its limited resources on live cases \u2026 rather than processing filings from WMATA just to dismiss them immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a known issue,\u201d OAH Chief Judge M. Colleen Currie told Nadeau, whose Council committee oversees the agency, during a hearing earlier this year. (Currie declined a request for comment.)<\/p>\n

While Nadeau says that a fix is needed, she\u2019s hesitant to push it herself because the OAH is already overburdened with cases. In 2025, for instance, it saw 44,305 cases filed \u2014 a 31% increase over prior the year \u2014 and has tens of thousands that remain open because of limited staffing and funding.<\/p>\n

Ward 2 Council member Brooke Pinto, who\u2019s pushed to increase enforcement on fare evasion<\/u><\/span> on Metro, said that an important part of the fix starts with Metro itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is incumbent on WMATA to ensure fare evasion citations are legible, accurate, and legally sufficient so that fares can be enforced,\u201d she said in an interview with NOTUS. \u201cEnforcing the fare is paid for rides on Metro is important for ensuring a sustainable and safe system for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

A D.C. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that the \u201cstructural realities and independent nature of the agencies involved have made effective fare enforcement difficult,\u201d but steps are being taken to address the problem.<\/p>\n

In a statement, the transit agency said it \u201cremains committed to improving fare compliance through a combination of education, infrastructure improvements, and enforcement. Metro\u2019s investments in modern faregates and fare enforcement contributed to an 82% reduction in rail fare evasion systemwide in 2024.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the meantime, the issue may only get more pressing. Last month, Metro said it was increasing enforcement of fare evasion on buses<\/u><\/span>.<\/p>\n

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A convoluted process for citations \u2014 which bring a $50 fine \u2014 means few are adjudicated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":736,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-metro"],"yoast_head":"\nMost Metro Fare Evasion Cases in D.C. Are Thrown Out - Modern Home Journals<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=737\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Most Metro Fare Evasion Cases in D.C. 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