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Who is SEPTA Chief Thomas Nestel and why is he retiring?

On Tuesday, Thomas J. Nestel III abruptly retired from his job as the chief of SEPTA’s police. Here’s what you need to know about his tenure at the transit agency.

SEPTA Transit Police Chief Thomas Nestel III.
SEPTA Transit Police Chief Thomas Nestel III.Read moreTOM GRALISH / Staff Photographer

On Tuesday, Thomas J. Nestel III abruptly retired from his job as the chief of SEPTA’s police. His second-in-command Charles Lawson will take over in the interim.

Here’s what you need to know about his tenure at the transit agency.

What was Nestel’s job?

The head of SEPTA’s police force — overseeing safety and the 200 plus officers patrolling the city’s mass transit. He was earning $191,594 a year, according to SEPTA.

What has Nestel’s tenure been like?

He’s been chief for 10 years. Nestel started the job in 2012 after five years as police chief of the Upper Moreland Police Department. Before that, he served with the Philadelphia Police Department.

For the first half of his tenure, he was seen as a popular cop in the city.

  1. Nestel implemented foot patrols around Kensington’s Somerset station in 2013 which deterred people who used drugs or took refuge inside the station there. (However, by 2021, Somerset station needed to be closed due to the same problem reemerging).

He also helped achieve one of his top goals early on — limiting fare evasion.

  1. The year before he took over, there were 416 citations for the violation. By 2014, SEPTA police were handing out over 4,500 of those tickets per year.

Nestel is also known for being an early adopter of mental health and social services in policing.

  1. Nestel believed that issues related to drug use, homelessness, and quality of life should not be handled by the police. During his tenure, SEPTA created a new squad on the transit police force to address these issues. Partnering with Merakey, a behavioral health and addiction services provider, SEPTA hired outreach specialists to patrol the transit lines in search of people who need help with addiction, mental health, and housing insecurity. Specialists then directly refer people in need of help to services, even providing transportation.

Why is Nestel leaving?

Nestel didn’t give a reason for his retiring, but he and the transit police have received public criticism because of the increase in violent crime on public transportation in the city.

“I have loved being a member of the transit police,” Nestel wrote Tuesday in an email to the SEPTA police department obtained by The Inquirer. “You are fabulous people who work in a challenging environment during a tenuous time.”

“Your efforts to maintain order in a society that is recalculating the role of the police has been nothing short of amazing,” the chief said.

While his resignation comes as a surprise for many, it also follows a pending federal lawsuit against SEPTA police that alleges discrimination, harassment, and retaliation against a Black police officer on the transit police force. For some in the transportation agency, this could be what helped push SEPTA leadership to ending Nestel’s tenure, according to people familiar with the situation who aren’t authorized to speak publicly.

What criticism has Nestel faced?

Nestel has faced criticism from the general public, SEPTA riders, and SEPTA workers, too.

  1. In March 2021, the union that represents SEPTA’s police officers — Fraternal Order of Transit Police Lodge 109 — announced a “vote of no confidence” (133-1) in the SEPTA police chief, citing inadequate patrol deployments and department policies that made arresting and detaining suspects harder for officers.

  2. That same month, the union that represents over 5,000 SEPTA employees — Transit Workers Local 234 — called for Nestel’s resignation, citing an increase in threats and assaults of its members after teenagers attacked a 55-year-old SEPTA track worker.

He was also criticized for working behind the scenes with the PPA. In 2017, Inquirer reporters began asking the Philadelphia Parking Authority (PPA) questions about why they hired SEPTA’s top cop to perform tasks for the parking authority.

  1. Over the course of 10 years, Nestel was paid over $100,000 for this work, which ranged from assessing the authority’s red-light camera system (even though PPA has someone in-house to do that) to being paid $3,000 to cut out newspaper clippings about UberX.

  2. Additionally, two of Nestel’s children secured jobs with PPA.

Safety on SEPTA has deteriorated over the last three years

Since the pandemic hit, complaints of assaults have spiked on the agency’s trains and buses. What’s happened since 2019?

  1. Increased violence on SEPTA riders and employees. Including racially motivated violence against a Philly teen.

  2. A case of sexual assault on the Market-Frankford subway line that put SEPTA’s police force in national headlines.

  3. Both the transit police and workers union called out Nestel’s patrol deployments and polices as inadequate to the crisis.