At least nine serial subway crooks have been banned for life from the system as a desperate measure to stop them from committing crimes underground, police officials told The Post.
The rogues’ gallery includes pickpockets, fare beaters and scrap-metal thieves who have racked up so many arrests that state Parole authorities made them agree to the ban as a condition of their prison releases.
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“If you’re a prolific subway recidivist, we have a good working relationship with Parole and have been able to ban them from subway use for good,” said Lt. Kevin Callaghan of the NYPD’s Manhattan Transit Task Force.
“These are guys that we dealt with over the years.”
If a banned perp is spotted anywhere in the system by NYPD officers, they can be arrested for a parole violation regardless of whether they were actually committing a new crime.
The banished bandits include Prince Hayes, 52, whose staggering 60 arrests are mostly for stealing copper from the transit system. On June 26, a cop saw Hayes walking on the tracks of the 2, 3, 4 and 6 lines just north of Prospect Park in Brooklyn.
He tried to cut a copper cable with a hacksaw as a train arrived in the station, according to a criminal complaint. He pleaded guilty to possession of burglar’s tools.
“They’re creatures of habit,” noted Callaghan about Hayes and the others. “This is where they feel comfortable.”
Christopher Harris, 46, has 41 subway-related busts. He was paroled from his fourth stint in prison in November 2011 for stealing a cellphone from someone sleeping on a subway train.
On a form detailing his “special conditions of release,” Harris checked a box next to a handwritten line saying, “I will not ride/enter the NYC subway system without prior approval of my parole officer.”
Parole authorities reserve the right to temporarily allow banned perps to use subways in certain situations, such as job-related duties.
Despite his promise, Harris was stopped by cops Jan. 12 after they saw him in the subway. He was turned over to Parole authorities.
The banned list was created after the 1991 death of 31-year-old Grace Cheng, who was dragged by a C train in Manhattan while chasing a thief who’d just mugged her.
That man, Brian Lawrence, had 18 prior arrests and had done prison stints for two subway-related robberies.
He now is serving 25 years to life for Cheng’s murder.
City Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. (D-Queens), chairman of the council’s Public Safety Committee, called the subway banned list “a great idea” but added, “There are a lot more than a handful of career criminals targeting the subways.”