This project is the next phase in ongoing research to document how the MTA and NYPD use public resources to criminalize poverty at the subway turnstile, especially in Black and Brown communities.

The first objective is to create an interactive map that shows NYPD enforcement activity at every subway station in the city, along with information on the racial composition and socioeconomic status of surrounding neighborhoods, and relevant NYPD Transit Bureau District. A second objective is to analyze the impact of the MTA’s 2019 fare evasion “crackdown” and the potential for heightened enforcement in historically over-policed communities.

I’m seeking one or more students with expertise in R to lead the programming work to create an interactive map using publicly available data from the NYPD and American Community Survey – presumably relying on R’s shiny and leaflet packages, but I welcome student ideas for the best R packages to suit the project goals. Previous work has done most of the required data cleaning and recoding, but additional data management work is needed to validate the data cleaning and streamline existing code to support the mapping work.

This work is expected to be done for course credit during the Fall and Spring semesters, but there may be opportunities to secure external funding to support ongoing work.

For students with a background in causal inference and applied econometrics, there is also the potential for future work to support econometric analysis on the impacts of the fare evasion crackdown.

This project is eligible for a matching fund stipend from the Data Science Institute. This is not a guarantee of payment, and the total amount is subject to available funding.

Faculty Advisor

  • Professor: Harold Stolper
  • Center/Lab:
  • I study barriers to economic opportunity and public policy solutions to help level the playing field across communities in New York City (and beyond), including policing disparities, neighborhood change, and access to public transit and higher education. One theme of this research is highlighting the ways in which government agencies use scarce public resources to punish or criminalize poverty instead of funding policy solutions that expand social and economic opportunity, especially in Black and Brown communities.

Project Timeline

  • Earliest starting date: 9/20/21
  • End date:

Candidate requirements

  • Skill sets: interactive mapping with R (e.g. leaflet and shiny packages), data management in R
  • Student eligibility: freshman, sophomore, junior, senior, master’s
  • International students on F1 or J1 visa: eligible
  • Academic Credit Possible: Yes
  • Additional comments: a strong interest in police accountability, and public policies that support communities and expand economic opportunity rather than criminalizing or punishing poverty