NYPD quality-of-life subway crackdown aimed at finding criminal offenders

A homeless man accused of shoplifting 17 times at the same Queens Duane Reade and menacing a security guard was back behind bars after police took him into custody for stretching out across several subway seats, the Daily News has learned.

The NYPD said the Feb. 7 arrest of Luis Caballero, 36, is an example of how enforcing NYC Transit rules maintains order in the subway system and often leads to the arrest of offenders wanted for crimes.

Critics argue, though, that such crackdowns invariably ensnare the poor and the homeless in the criminal justice system, such as when a warrant is issued because someone issued an initial summons doesn’t show up in court or pay the required fine.

Caballero’s bust happened eight days after Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch’s announcement that the NYPD will make sure straphangers don’t violate rules that bother other riders, such as taking up more than one seat, smoking and drinking alcohol.

Tisch said at the time that the initiative “is designed to address the surge of random acts of violence we’re seeing in the subways.”

“Because the truth is,” she said, “the overwhelming majority of people who commit these violent acts have a long history of unlawful conduct in the transit system.”

Tisch said the increased focus on crime and conditions in the subway, including the recent move to add more cops on trains, including two on every train overnight. Since that initiative started police have made 100 arrests and issued more than 400 summonses.

In another an example of Tisch’s argument, a man wanted for several crimes against women, including allegedly groping three schoolgirls, was busted in Queens recently when police first approached him for taking up more than one subway seat.

Police Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch. (Shawn Inglima / New York Daily News)

Civil liberties advocates pushed back, though, saying the new efforts are another form of “broken windows” policing.

They noted that even though police do offer transit rule offenders various forms of help — such as taking them to a shelter or a psychiatric facility — they are stopgap measures that don’t replace what’s really needed, better funded social service programs that don’t depend on the police to help those in need.

Andrew Case, a top lawyer with Latino Justice PRLDEF, said for every homeless person caught taking up more than one seat and found to be wanted for a crime nine others are guilty of nothing more than having no place to live.

“We have seen for decades that arresting people for minor so-called ‘quality of life’ offenses leads invariably to racial profiling, and doesn’t even improve the so-called disorder it is meant to address,” Case said.

Caballero’s arrest happened shortly before 5 a.m. when police saw him lying down inside a F train near the Briarwood station. He twice gave police the same fake name and date of birth then properly identified himself, according to police and the Queens District Attorney’s Office.

That’s when police realized he was being sought for two thefts at the same Jackson Heights Duane Reade — on 37th Ave. near 74th St. where he had previously struck 17 times last summer, ending with his arrest in September, police said.

During that spree, Caballero stole merchandise each time and twice threatened the same security guard, once cutting him on the hand with what appeared to be a pen, the other time telling the guard, “Back off or else I will shank you,” according to court papers.

For those 17 incidents, Caballero was held on bail and was behind bars for nearly four months, ending Jan. 29.

On that day he pleaded guilty to three counts of petty larceny and was sentenced to a drug treatment program with the understanding that he’d be sentenced to nearly three years in prison if he got back in trouble, according to a spokesperson with the Queens District Attorney’s Office.

Just six days later, on Feb. 4, Caballero returned to Duane Reade and, according to the court complaint, pilfered about $270 worth of items –12 Nutella products and 11 other various grocery products. Two days later, the complaint said, he stole two pet products from the same Duane Reade.

After the subway encounter, Caballero is now being held without bail for trespassing and burglary, and the DA spokesperson said Caballero could now face 33 months in prison if convicted. Caballero’s lawyer did not respond to a request for comment.

Duane Reade employees wouldn’t comment — and a company spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

But nearby residents and merchants agreed that shoplifting, while less of a problem than it was a couple of years ago, is still persistent.

“This is a problem,” the manager at a nearby grocery store said, “somebody coming, regularly coming and stealing something from my store.”

A Duane Reade customer, Nazmul Miah, 57, said somebody like Caballero should get food at a homeless shelter and be jailed if he decides to steal.

“Anybody who has been arrested that many times should be put away for a long time,” Miah said. And if they’re here illegally they should get deported. I think cops should be cracking down on everything, homeless people sleeping in train stations, shoplifters, drug dealers, all of that.”

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