Ebay Trust and Safety could learn something from the NY Subway Graffiti Problem
In the late 1970s, the crime was escalating out of control on the New York subways. However, New York transit police representatives were issuing reports to the public claiming that crime on the subways was actually declining. Several news organizations questionned the reality of the declining crime statistics, especially at the end of 1978. The Daily News claimed that even transit cops were afraid to patrol the 42nd Street / 8th Avenue station, one of the first stations to get closed circuit television installed.
During all of 1978, there were nine murders on the NY subway system. In just the first two months of 1979 there were six murders. The public was not convinced that that crime was declining on the subways.
According to the Transit Police Chief at the time, Sanford Garelik, crime on the NY subways were not as bad as the crime on the streets of New York. The Chief insisted that it was the “perception of rampant crime” that was making people fearful. He further stated that he believed the fear was exaggerated because adults were simply not comfortable riding in confined spaces with young people who are “loud, long haired and casually dressed”.
Despite being told that the subways were becoming safer and that their fear was unfounded, the public knew the truth because they lived it. And the newspapers were anxious to publicly tell the stories of individuals who were suffering. Suddenly the victims had faces and the country cried out in anger. On March 6th, 1979, Mayor Koch demanded action rather than words and six months later Garelik was eventually fired when he wouldn’t resign.
By that time, the NY police were recording more than 250 felonies on the subway system every week, a crime rate in excess of all other mass transit networks in the world. The NY subways were not safe and by now it was clear to everyone, not just the NY riders who had been the victims for years, that the crime on the subways was simply out of hand.
What did it ultimately take for New York to reduce the crime problem on the subways? Someone with some intelligence and not an overinflated ego finally asked “the folks in the trenches” to give input as to how the problem could be solved. Many cops revealed that they had been directed by their bosses to only seek out and deal with the most serious crimes and to ignore the “quality of life” crimes. According to those cops, there was a major flaw with that strategy. By ignoring the less serious crimes, you cannot establish a sense of order.
And, so it was decided that New York police would take all crimes seriously despite many objections from some higher ranking police officers. And the decision was made to start with a crime that was clearly visible to everyone and which symbolized the subway crime problem — graffiti.
The Transit Authority’s anti-graffiti budget was substantially increased. The police began closely guarding train yards and made the more favored graffiti painting areas inaccessible. Graffiti removal was a top priority. Every morning, the Transit Authority pulled off the line any car that had been tagged the night before and it was put back into service only when the graffiti had been removed.
Tackling the graffiti problem on the subway was the first step in the plan for the Transit Authority taking back control of the New York subway system. It sent a signal to everyone, especially the felons, that crime of any kind would not be tolerated.
Establishing a sense of order began with recognizing the very root of the problem, that less serious crime was being ignored which created an atmosphere of lawlessness, and then empowering the Transit Authority cops and NY police to deal with all crime.
This recap of the New York city subway crime problem and the subsequent solution can be directly related to eBay. It is widely acknowledged, even by eBay, there is a “trust” issue with the eBay marketplace. The lack of trust in the eBay marketplace leads buyers to shop elsewhere but it also leads sellers who mistrust eBay to list their unique wares elsewhere online. eBay has taken many steps to try and establish trust in the marketplace again. But I believe eBay is ignoring the very root of the problem:
1. eBay changes the rules so frequently, and until recently, with very little warning so it is difficult for most users to keep up. As a result, many eBay users violate policy unintentionally but, even so, are treated like a criminal element if they get caught violating a rule. Personally, I was issued a policy violation warning in 2008 for a policy that had not yet been enacted and, even worse, had not yet been announced. Several hours after my listings were removed and I received a policy violation warning email, eBay announced a new policy banning ebooks that was to take effect the following week. I had not violated a policy yet the policy violation warning stayed on my record and my listings were never reinstated.
2. eBay knowingly overlooks some sellers’ infractions. There is a post on the eBay Powerseller board titled “eBay now removes negative feedback for Diamond powersellers” which is a very passionate dicussion of how eBay has allowed one new seller (only 20 feedback) to violate multiple policies. And this is not the first time eBay users have pointed out the unfair application of the policies and some large / favored sellers blatant disregard of the rules – in the past there was such a loud outcry over one airline company breaking the rules that eBay did ultimately take action. It is one thing to give pricing incentives and better search placement to favored sellers but it is another thing altogether to allow them to brazenly violate the rules.
3. eBay is a self-reporting system which means that an eBay member reports a possible violation of another eBay member and Trust & Safety investigates. The problem is that Trust & Safety is obviously too busy to investigate lower level policy violations, like keyword spamming, and even when eBay Trust & Safety has the inclination to investigate it is usually too late especially if the listing was in the auction format which ends in a short period of time. As a result, eBay members often times give up reporting or harbor deep resentment and frustration.
Because of eBay’s adhoc and inconsistent application of the rules, there is a sense of “lawlessness” in the eBay marketplace which leads to a distrustful marketplace. Granted that the days of the eBay Wild West, when eBay was “only a marketplace”, are finally over but eBay users violate policies and little is done.
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