Gov. Kathy Hochul stated on Wednesday that she would deploy Nationwide Guard troopers and State Law enforcement officials to the New York Metropolis subway system, the place they’ll patrol platforms and assist test baggage.
Ms. Hochul stated a big present of pressure within the system, which is operated by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, a state company, would assist commuters and guests to the town really feel secure.
Further legislation enforcement officers would add to an already giant presence within the subways, the place Mayor Eric Adams ordered an extra 1,000 officers in February following a forty five % spike in main crimes in January in contrast with the identical time final 12 months.
Grand larcenies — thefts with out the usage of pressure — had been a important driver of the January spike in crime, in keeping with the police. Grand larcenies are outlined by the police as main crimes, together with homicides, assaults and robberies.
Ms. Hochul stated she would deploy 1,000 members of the State Police, the Nationwide Guard and the transportation authority to “conduct bag checks in the city’s busiest stations.”
“These brazen heinous attacks on our subway system will not be tolerated,” Ms. Hochul stated throughout a information convention on Wednesday, referring to a variety of latest high-profile assaults.
There will probably be 750 members of the New York Nationwide Guard and an extra 250 personnel from the State Police and the M.T.A. They are going to be working with the New York Police Division to try to maintain weapons from being introduced into the subway system.
“No one heading to their job or to visit family or go to a doctor appointment should worry that the person sitting next to them possesses a deadly weapon,” the governor stated.
The deployment is a part of what Ms. Hochul described as a five-point plan, which would supply $20 million and pay for 10 groups of psychological well being staff who would assist individuals on the subway. The plan would additionally introduce laws that may permit judges to ban individuals convicted of a violent crime from using the subways, add cameras to coach conductors’ management cubicles and coordinate with prosecutors to trace repeat offenders.
In mid-2022, there was about one violent crime for each a million rides on the subway, according to a New York Times analysis, making the probabilities of falling sufferer to such against the law distant. Since then, these possibilities have grow to be much more distant, as the general crime price within the transit system has fallen and ridership has elevated.
Nonetheless, the most recent deployment comes as total statistics present a murkier image of crime on the subways, the place three homicides have taken place since January and a number of other brutal assaults, including the stabbing of a transit worker on Feb. 29, have as soon as once more raised questions in regards to the security of the town’s transit system.
As of March 3, there had been 388 main crimes within the metropolis’s transit system this 12 months, in keeping with Police Division information. That was a 13 % enhance over the identical interval final 12 months, the information exhibits.
But the variety of main crimes dedicated within the transit system to date this 12 months was about 3 % decrease than it was right now in 2019, earlier than the Covid-19 pandemic, when extra transit riders used the system, division statistics present.
Ridership stays decrease than it was earlier than the pandemic when there have been 5 million individuals on the subways day by day. There are actually about three million every day riders, in keeping with M.T.A. figures.
As the town continues to return again from the pandemic, Mayor Adams has stated that he desires to see an “omnipresence” of cops on the subways. He was not on the information convention with Ms. Hochul on Wednesday.
However at a information convention on Tuesday he instructed reporters that when he talked to riders on the subway they instructed him, “Eric, nothing makes us feel safer than seeing that officer at the token booth, walking through the system, walking through the trains.”
Transit specialists anxious that the additional vigilance might have the alternative of its supposed impact, making riders much more afraid of the subways moderately than reassured.
“Deploying troops to the subway will unfortunately increase the perception of crime,” stated Danny Pearlstein, a spokesman for the Riders Alliance, a transit advocacy group.
Mr. Pearlstein urged public officers to focus as an alternative on addressing issues within the transit system at their root causes by offering extra housing, well being care and different essential social providers for individuals in want.
Chelsia Rose Marcius and Wesley Parnell contributed reporting.
