“A crowded train is no excuse for an improper touch. Don’t stand for it or feel ashamed, or be afraid to speak up. Report it to an MTA employee or police officer.”

We are all familiar with the statement from the subway poster, flier or frequent train announcement – it’s the echo of the 2008 MTA campaign.

But with the announced cuts of 450 station agents in stations across the city, risk of sexual harassment, may rise soon.

On a recent NYC Tracks poll, 57 percent surveyed said they had felt uncomfortable or harassed on the train before.

We wanted to find out how many commuters have experience sexual harassment on the train, platform or station in the past year.

Since more commuters will have no one to turn to due to expected cuts, we thought it’s worth finding out, what was the annual rate compared to 2007, when 10 percent commuters said they have experienced sexual harassment on the train.

Well, your guess is as good as ours.

It turns out that the problem starts even earlier.

Sexual Harassment on Public Transportation from Dana Rapoport on Vimeo.

“Unfortunately not much data available on sexual offenses committed in the mass transit system. This is in due in part to the NYPD not capturing or reporting on crimes at the misdemeanor level,” said Raquel Namuche, community organizer for New Yorkers for Safe Transit.

The NYFST, along with Right Rides and HollabackNYC, are raising awareness on harassment and assaults in public transportation in New York City.

RightRides is another initiative that fights transit-related harassment. It offers women, LGBTQ a free, safe, late night ride home on Friday in up to 45 NYC neighborhoods across four NYC boroughs.

“Catch that jerk with your videophone or do journalistic style feature on Street Harassment and we’ll post it!,” says HollabackNYC, an organization that encourages New Yorkers to send pictures of street/transportation harassers, as one of the ways to empower women commuters.

“We probably get 2-3 stories a week.  Over the past year or so, we’ve seen a rise in transit-related stories and the stories have become increasingly more violent. Stories of groping and public masturbation are the norm, not the exception anymore,” said Emily May, Co-founder of Hollaback, as another indication of commuters’ distress through emails and pictures submitted to their blog.

“Understaffed subway system makes it hard to report these crimes. By the time victims have found an MTA worker or police officer, their perpetrator is 7 stops away.”

Last November, in a joint hearing titled “Sexual Harassment and Assault on New York City Subways” put together by the committees on women’s issues, transportation, and public safety, Chief James P. Hall of the NYC Police Department’s Transit Bureau stated that 587 “sex offenses” were reported in 2009 – information that is not otherwise released to the public, delivered to NYC Tracks by NYFST.

Chief Hall emphasized that the department believes the number of reported offenses to be only a fraction of the number of unreported offenses.

412 people were arrested for sex offenses in the subway so far this year.

Beyond the different actions and programs, the three organizations are also working with Council member Jessica Lappin to who introduced a bill that would require the NYPD to collect data on complaints of sexual harassment on the subway system (inappropriate touching, public masturbation, etc.)

“We’re hoping to push for legislation and policy that would reclassify these crimes so that sexual harassment data can be captured and perpetrators can be further held accountable for their actions,” said Namuche.

The MTA Police Department did not get back to messages left by NYC Tracks.

The Metropolitan Transit Authority has many issues to take care of, but in addition to the latest spike in violence we witnessed in the last weeks, sexual harassment might be just as big threat and risk to commuters at rush hour and off peak hours. It’s not that it’s not as severe – we just don’t know the scope of it.

Citizen reporting and community volunteering to raise awareness, are the first steps to help fill the void of hundreds of missing subway agents.

— Dana Rapoport