Crimes on the Rise at Metro Stations

In Washington, D.C., the Gallery Place Metro is one of the busiest Metro stops in the city. Unfortunately, it also has more crime than any other Metro location in the District.

"You have to be street smart-- you can't be overly fearful," said one Metro rider. "We want to come into the city, but at the same time you can't be stupid about it. You have to watch what you are doing."

Deputy Chief Jeff Delinski says they have recently seen an increase in robberies and thefts of small electronic devices like iPods and GPS devices.

"What we did, instead of sending plain clothes officers out there to try to look for the bad guy, we actually bated them in this year using plain clothes officers in a decoy operation," says Chief Delinski.

He says while crime is up, so are the number of arrests. In the last couple of months, police have locked up 50 suspects. So far, transit police have made 989 arrests and issued 3,164 citations.

In Maryland, the New Carrolton stop has the most crime. In Virginia, it's Franconia-Springfield. Chief Delinski says that's mostly because of the number of cars in the parking lots.

"Larcenies and robberies are up so far for this year," said Chief Delinski. "Navigation systems, things left in the vehicles."

In fact, Delinski says more than half the overall crime is related to automobiles thefts and break-ins. The crime stats will be officially released at a Metro board meeting September 24.