The Maryland Transit Administration will begin suspending or banning individuals who harass or assault someone on a bus or train from riding the system, the agency announced Tuesday, after a new law passed in Annapolis this year granting it that authority.

The new policy, which goes into effect Oct. 1, comes alongside an updated “Rider Code of Conduct” that formally prohibits many commonsense prohibited behaviors on MTA vehicles and at stations like smoking, stealing and unlawful possession of a firearm.

“Prohibited” behaviors could result in a citation or, if illegal, prompt police intervention, according to the policy. Harassment or an assault, which includes a threat with a weapon, unwanted sexual contact, spitting on someone and more, also could result in a suspension or outright ban from riding MTA vehicles.

Those who are banned from MTA service will be notified of how to appeal that decision.

The policy marks a new step in discouraging crime and promoting a safe environment on transit vehicles, but could prove difficult to enforce across a sprawling network of buses and trains that serves hundreds of thousands of riders everyday.

“99.8% of our rides don’t have anything happen on them and people have good experiences,” Maryland Transit Administrator Holly Arnold said. “But, it’s one bad apple spoils the bunch — we don’t want that one bad experience to turn people off of transit."

The policy change is about setting expectations, Arnold said, with the goal being deterrence, not surveillance. The agency is developing a mobile app that riders can use to discreetly report prohibited behavior to MTA police, she added.

The agency has its own force of 230 sworn and unsworn MTA police officers, but also has agreements with other local law enforcement agencies where the MTA operates to assist on scene before MTA Police arrive.

Nationally, assaults on transit operators tripled between 2008 and 2023, according to the Urban Institute. Though the MTA’s experience has followed that trend, Arnold said, the agency has seen a decrease in more serious assaults.

MTA police largely treat assaults on an operator like an assault on a police officer, and the clearance rate for such crimes is very high, Arnold added.

Students in Baltimore City Public Schools also have been exposed to violence, harassment or lewd behavior when relying on the transit system to get to class. The MTA’s Youth Transit Council was critical in developing the new code of conduct, Arnold said.

The rate of serious incidents — murder, rape, assault, robbery and other crimes that the FBI describes as Part 1 crimes — on MTA vehicles have fallen by about 56% over the past decade, according to the agency. Last year, 159 such incidents were reported.