San Francisco transit officials are crediting a public awareness campaign and more police officers assigned to patrol buses and trains for a decline in crime on Muni, including an 88 percent reduction in smartphone thefts.
"I can feel fairly comfortable in saying it was some combination of those two things that really made it happen," said Ed Reiskin, director of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency.
An SFMTA spokesman said overall crime on the Municipal Railway has dropped 36 percent since May:
Robberies alone have decreased by over 75 percent, down 10 to 15 robberies per month compared to the 50 to 60 robberies that were occurring prior to additional police support. Additionally, crimes on routes with the highest incidents of crime have decreased by 36 percent.
Mobile devices have been the target in the vast majority of robbery cases, which is why the city also launched the “Eyes Up, Phones Down” anticrime and public awareness campaign last August.
That dramatic rise in electronic-device theft was seen both locally and nationwide. Reiskin says that single category of crime reversed Muni's previous "steady progress" in reducing crime.
The ubiquitous use of smartphones on transit and everywhere else has also had an apparent impact in reducing public awareness of crime happening nearby. For instance: last September's fatal shooting of 20-year-old Justin Valdez, a San Francisco State student who was randomly targeted and shot to death while exiting a Muni train. Surveillance video showed the suspect waving his gun around on the train, failing to catch the attention of riders glued to their smartphones.