On October 3, Joseph Denny Nezperce, 36, was shot and killed on Metro Transit’s Green Line near Minneapolis’ Stadium Village station. In the wake of his death, transit officials have sought to assure users – present and potential – that such crimes, while tragic, are increasingly rare.
Data made available by Metro Transit seems to bear that out. The number of serious crimes in Metro Transit buses, trains, stations and parking lots has fallen from highs in 2023, aligning with the implementation of the agency’s Safety and Security Action Plan, completed in 2022.
Officials say the plan is working and cite rider reports of increased feelings of safety. What’s less clear to riders, though, is where and on what form of transit the crime that’s still happening is taking place.
While Metro Transit officials said they’re looking at crime through the lens of geographic area, boarding locations and routes, it’s only reported to the public at a systemwide level. And Transit Police Chief Joseph Dotseth said that for his department, tracking crime by mode – i.e. by bus vs. light rail – is a “relatively new phenomenon.”
So while it’s simple to download detailed Metro Transit data and identify that, say, aggravated assault reports fell from 228 in 2023 to 142 in 2025, or that purse-snatching has nearly been eliminated (only two reports in 2026 so far), where in the transit system those crimes are occurring isn’t apparent.
Both Dotseth and Metro Transit General Manager Lesley Kandaras identified the Safety and Security Action Plan as a turning point. It led to initiatives like TRIP agents – unarmed officials trained in de-escalation who ride light rail and certain bus routes to check fares, enforce the rules of riding and assist riders.
It also led to a sharper focus on ensuring bus stops are well-lit, sheltered and up-to-date with repairs.
In June, Metro Transit will open its long-awaited Green Line Expansion into the southwestern suburbs, putting transit safety and its public perception into an even brighter spotlight. The additional 16 stops will require hiring more transit police officers and expanding their presence.
“We know that if people aren’t perceiving transit to be safe, it’s unlikely they’re going to ride,” Kandaras said.
Just a few years ago, said Metro Transit spokesperson Drew Kerr, only about 20% of light rail trips had an official safety presence on them. It’s now closer to 50%.
Riders appear to be responding. Complaints about customer behavior and police resources on light rail are down from highs seen in 2024 and early 2025, when each category would often see more than 30 per month, if not 40. Neither category of complaint has been logged more than 20 times in a month since June of 2025.
And while riders still say they feel safer on buses than trains, a fall 2025 survey showed numbers trending in a positive direction: About 49% of riders felt safe on trains compared to 33% two years earlier. About 22% said they did not feel safe. Perceived safety at light rail stations rose from 29% to 44% over the same period, with 25% saying they didn’t feel safe.
“We care very deeply about the system,” Dotseth said, “and we want it to be safe. But we need to keep sharing stories about it. There’s way more positive work going on in our system than negative.”
Still, Metro Transit’s data shared with the public doesn’t show where crimes are occurring.
“We report data at a systemwide level,” Kerr said, “because it is currently the best way we have of reporting [and] tracking trends consistently over time.”
That said, the agency is required to submit some crime data broken down by mode to the Federal Transit Administration. According to available reports, the FTA collects local agency data on the most serious incidents – everything from fatalities and serious injuries to train derailments or bomb threats.
That data includes some crimes, primarily homicides or assaults resulting in serious injury. In 2025, Metro Transit reported 27 such instances on light rail and 35 on buses to the FTA. All of those incidents were assaults – no homicides were reported in 2025.
The goal, eventually, is to bring a similar level of detail to all of the agency’s crime statistics, Kerr said.
“The question is, can you do it over time in a way that makes it comparable?” he asked, adding that the department’s data team is working on it.
Todd Litman, the founder and executive director of the Victoria Transport Policy Institute – a Canadian organization that focuses on U.S. statistics because, in Litman’s words, “here in Canada, our data collection is terrible” – said that as a researcher, he’d want to see Metro Transit’s data broken down as much as possible.
In Chicago, for example, the Chicago Police Department surfaces data for ten FBI index crimes like homicide, aggravated assault and theft that can be broken down by where in the city’s transit system they occurred, like a bus, train or station. Sound Transit, in the Seattle metropolitan area, also broke down some of their crime data by mode in a 2025 report.
Despite Metro Transit’s lack of public-facing data, Litman cautioned that “the truth is transit crime is much, much lower” than crimes involving an automobile. Many transit agencies, he said, “have done a bad job” making that clear to people, for example through fear-inducing campaigns like “See something, say something.”
What would he like to see?
“Every time you give people a warning” about rider safety, Litman said, “it should begin with a reminder: Public transit is the safest way to travel.”
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