WASHINGTON — It was the video that took over DC social media this week. A stunned Metro rider took cellphone footage of a young man seemingly smoking crystal meth on board a Red Line train Tuesday.
It got posted to X and was viewed over 11,000 times. WMATA saw it, too, and asked the poster which train and dispatched Metro Transit Police.
It was just the latest in a string of alleged illegal activities happening on Metro rail or nearby.
The same rider captured another person apparently using drugs on the T18 bus the week before.
"People are always doing something, and that's the dangerous part. There are not enough police,” Metro rider Marcus Bell said.
According to Metro Transit Police online data fare evasion, simple assault and vandalism continue to be among the top crimes on or around Metro. But the numbers also show drug crimes are on the rise.
The most up-to-date numbers show that by August of this year, Metro saw 198 drug arrests compared to 75 by the same time last year.
Still, the latest arrest count is nowhere near pre-pandemic levels, where transit police arrested 952 people in 2019.
“My safety is important and my mother's safety is more important because she's helping me out,” Bell said.
Bell is vision impaired and his retiree mom helps him navigate Metro these days.
“When I was working, that was my concern because I couldn't see at night so Daylight Saving Time I couldn't see well and I've been robbed several times,” Bell said.
“It could definitely be improved having more police presence on the trains late at night and during the school year,” another ride, Ellie Farber, said.
WMATA’s board will meet on Thursday to discuss, among many topics, customer experience improvement. It’s hard to imagine this meeting taking place without some acknowledgment of the safety issues facing customers on Metro.