Subway crime has dipped in the Big Apple — but try telling that to the victims of these transit terrors.
A cluster of 63 career criminals continues to wreak havoc in the city’s underground, racking up more than 5,000 busts between them — yet only five of them are currently behind bars, The Post has learned.
The motley crew has amassed a disturbing rap sheet for crimes including assault, robbery, theft, turnstile-jumping and a string of other nuisance offenses — but they largely remain free because the state’s lax criminal-justice reforms bar judges from holding them on bail.
“Crime is down in the subways, but it’s the same handful of criminals making it feel like chaos,” a frustrated law-enforcement source said. “This kid gloves approach to bail and lack of prosecution isn’t cutting it.”
The latest NYPD statistics show that transit crime in the five boroughs has been on the decline, down 3.8% over the first eight months of the year compared to the same period in 2024 and dipping nearly 6% in the past two years thanks to focused enforcement and police deployments.
That’s no thanks to the state’s 2019 criminal justice reforms, which bar judges from setting bail on most crimes, including all non-violent crimes.
Under the so-called reforms, repeat offenders busted for any crime other than violent felonies typically get a slap on the wrist and are cut loose while their cases are pending — with many allegedly committing new crimes.
That’s been the case with dozens of transit system offenders, according to sources.
Among the most notorious is Michael Wilson, a 39-year-old vagrant with 198 total arrests, 190 of them tied to the transit system — and 36 of them this year alone.
Wilson’s rap sheet includes multiple arrests for alleged criminal tampering for rigging MetroCard dispensers.
Another repeat offender is 28-year-old Kenney Mitchell, who has been arrested a total of 149 times in his life, including 18 times just since May of this year for alleged theft and forgery — and in June after he was found lying on a C train platform with a pocket full of crack vials, sources said.
Carlos Baezcaban, 53, has logged 72 career arrests, including for alleged grand larceny, trespassing and drug possession. That count includes the six times he has been busted since he was put on probation in May for a possession of stolen property conviction.
Some of the offenders have been hit with sex-related crimes such as public lewdness and forcible touching.
Matthew Leon, 26, has 29 arrests under his belt — with 13 that were sex-related, including for allegedly fondling female straphangers and pressing against others.
Another repeat offender, 38-year-old Jamar Cobb, has logged 48 career arrests including for alleged robbery and public lewdness and theft.
Shaquille Clarke, 32, whose 18 arrests include alleged forcible touching and robbery, has been charged with pressing against a woman in the subways and slugging a lady to take her phone, sources said.
Clarke was placed on probation in May for a robbery conviction and has been arrested once since.
Of the six chronic offenders named above, only one, Leon, is currently behind bars. The rest are still roaming the streets and train system.
Leon was finally ordered held without bail on a February charge of forcible touching of a minor in Queens.
The accused scofflaws have been represented by multiple lawyers over the years, primarily public defenders, while some of the charges against them were minor and did not involve the need for an attorney.
The Legal Aid Society, which helps provide public defenders, declined to comment. The Post reached out to numerous lawyers who have repped some of the scofflaws, but the attorneys either did not return calls for comment or would not discuss the cases.
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