MARTA to feds: Crime prevention strategies are working
MARTA officials said in letters to state and federal officials investigating safety that recent crime incidents are outliers in a system that is overall safe — and getting safer.
MARTA responded on Wednesday to Federal Transit Administration authorities and to Georgia House and Senate leaders, all of whom gave the transit agency a deadline this week to answer questions about safety for passengers and employees following a fatal stabbing and other violent crimes in the past month.
MARTA said the spate of incidents in May and June, which include a second stabbing and the non-fatal shooting of a 17-year-old, are outliers in a system that has reduced year-over-year crime by 8%.
“Our increased law enforcement actions are having a positive impact,” Interim General Manager and CEO Jonathan Hunt wrote in the letter to the FTA.
Going back further, Hunt wrote, the most serious of crimes have declined by 45% since 2020. MARTA officials have previously credited a large drop in crime from 2024 to 2025 to increasing its on-the-ground patrols and being more aggressive with suspensions and arrests.
MARTA is the latest transit agency to have a federal safety investigation launched by the Trump-led FTA. A similar inquiry was opened in Charlotte last year following a woman’s death, and Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City have also been investigated. MARTA officials said last week they expected the review.
The FTA said that since October 2023, violent crimes resulting in injuries that required medical attention or death have happened on MARTA nearly twice as often as the national average. That’s true, but crimes here and on other transit agencies are rare, happening once for every 1.9 million trips on a MARTA train or bus, and once every 3.5 million trips nationally, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution analysis of federal data shows.
In the letters, MARTA gave state and federal officials information on several safety strategies. Among the transit agency’s initiatives:
- Hiring additional officers: MARTA had 230 police officers in August 2025 and now has 268, Hunt said. The agency has 29 field protective specialists who assist with patrols and 21 administrative protective specialists who secure MARTA facilities.
- Created a real-time crime center: MARTA monitors more than 12,000 surveillance cameras from a control center created in 2025 that is staffed 24/7. The agency also uses Axon FUSUS and Flock public safety technologies.
- New trains: MARTA’s new trains, which were supposed to debut on June 4 but are delayed, feature CCTV cameras that can be monitored by operators and police. The new trains have open gangways, allowing riders and police to walk from one end to the other, and have microphones strategically located to alert officials to loud noises that may indicate a need for security intervention.
- Train patrol: MARTA is increasing train patrols and has committed to putting a police officer on each of the new trains when they come into service.
- Fare evasion: MARTA recently announced that anyone caught breaking its new faregates will be charged with a felony. Undercover officers currently patrol stations to enforce fare payment. Later this summer, the agency plans to begin random fare inspections on its vehicles using hand-held portable devices.
- Help for the homeless: MARTA funds six case managers who help unhoused individuals get assistance. The agency also pays for 10 shelter beds at the Gateway Center and Salvation Army.
- Public assistance: Riders can report crimes using emergency phones and call buttons in stations, parking garages and on trains. Riders can also report crimes and call or text MARTA police using the agency’s app.