The Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency funded $5,000 recruitment bonuses for 39 new SEPTA transit police officers
HARRISBURG, PA – Lt. Gov. Austin Davis is highlighting how state investments – including nearly $200,000 to recruit dozens of new transit police officers – are helping to make the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority (SEPTA) safer for riders and operators.
“As the son of a union bus driver, I know how important transit is for Pennsylvania – and I also understand how important it is for our transit systems to be clean and safe,” said Davis, who also leads the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD). “At PCCD, we’ve been helping law enforcement agencies across the Commonwealth expand their ranks with a recruitment grant program, and one of the departments that has used this program is the SEPTA transit police, which is now fully staffed up. We need to keep investing in our transit agencies, so they can keep making progress on safety.”
Click here to watch a video with Lt. Gov. Austin Davis and SEPTA Transit Police Chief Charles Lawson.
In December 2023, PCCD approved a Law Enforcement Recruitment grant for SEPTA’s transit police. SEPTA used the grant funding to provide $5,000 bonuses to 39 officers.
Rebounding from having a shortage of officers after the pandemic, SEPTA's transit police department has its largest force in more than a decade. Just last week, SEPTA swore in 13 new transit officers, and nine recruits are expected to start at the academy in July, bringing the total number of uniformed officers to 247.
The staffing increases are having an impact, as serious crime on SEPTA decreased by one-third last year. That was the largest one-year drop in serious crimes in the transit police agency’s history. SEPTA transit police are also deploying a new unit and conducting enforcement blitzes across the system to stop fare evasion.
The Shapiro-Davis 2025-26 budget proposal includes $292 million in new funding next year – generating $1.5 billion over five years – to support 52 transit systems that serve nearly one million riders each day across rural, urban and suburban communities. These investments would help create jobs, connect communities and ensure Pennsylvanians can commute to work, go to school, access health care and travel safely and reliably.