WASHINGTON (DC News Now) — D.C. lawmakers hosted a public hearing Wednesday for a new bill that looks to crack down on fare evasion throughout the Metro transit system.

The bill, called the Metro Safety Amendment Act of 2023, would allow officers to detain fare jumpers who get caught and don’t stop to give officers their information.

At Wednesday’s hearing, Metro leaders said fare jumping costs the system tens of millions of dollars a year, and happens thousands of times a day.

It also allows officers to give tickets up to $100. Currently, officers in Maryland and Virginia are also able to give $100 tickets.

Fare evasion was decriminalized in D.C. back in 2018, but that made it tougher to enforce.

Councilmember Brooke Pinto said it’s time for change.

“We are a city of laws and those laws have to be followed. If they’re not going to be followed, then we shouldn’t have them on the books,” Pinto said.

Metro has made efforts to crack down on fare evasion, launching a campaign last fall with signage and new faregates at some stations.

Metro said those taller and stronger faregates are helping to crack down on fare evasion, but some people are still managing to slip through, jump over or piggyback off of someone else’s SmarTrip card.

As for fare evasion on Metrobus, Metro leaders said that’s even harder to enforce.

Leaders explained they can’t put an officer on every bus, plus bus operators are trained not to engage with fare evaders, and a lack of infrastructure like a physical gate make it hard to stop bus fare evaders.