A man was taken into custody after slipping into a New York subway station through an emergency gate without paying. During a pat-down, officers discovered he was unlawfully carrying a loaded firearm. At another station, police arrested a different man for fare evasion and found he had 38 decks of heroin and a loaded gun that had been reported stolen. In yet another case, a person stopped for not paying the fare in a different part of the city was found with a gun, ammunition, and crack cocaine. New York police contend that cracking down on what appears to be a minor infraction (fare evasion) enables them to catch people engaged in more serious wrongdoing—potentially heading off violent crime. Still, the question of how to respond to such violations has been fiercely contested for decades. Critics fear that allowing arrests can escalate into violent encounters or lead to jail time for people already under financial strain. All over a $2.90 subway ride? While some fare evaders have prior criminal histories, for many, this would be their first arrest. Is filing criminal charges truly the best approach? In 2023, the board of directors of BART—Bay Area Rapid Transit, the San Francisco–area rail system—voted to oppose a bill in the California legislature that would decriminalize fare evasion. “The public is speaking very loud to us right now—and they have been—about the lack of enforcement of rules in our system,” said BART board member Debora Allen.…