Gov. Kathy Hochul said Wednesday that she will deploy National Guard troops and State Police officers to the New York City subway system, where they will patrol platforms and help check baggage.
Ms. Hochul said a major show of force in the system run by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, a state agency, will help commuters and visitors to the city feel safe.
The additional law enforcement officers will add to an already heavy presence in the subways, where Mayor Eric Adams ordered 1,000 more officers in February after the number of major crimes increased by 45 % in January compared to the same period last year.
According to police, grand thefts – thefts without the use of force – were the main cause of the increase in crime in January. Grand thefts are defined by police as major crimes, along with murders, assaults and robberies.
Ms. Hochul said she would deploy 1,000 members of the State Police, National Guard and transportation authorities to “conduct bag checks at the city’s busiest stations.” .
“These blatantly brutal attacks on our subway system will not be tolerated,” Ms. Hochul said at a news conference Wednesday.
There will be 750 members of the New York National Guard and an additional 250 personnel from the State Police and MTA. They will work with the New York Police Department to try to prevent weapons from being brought into the subway system.
“No one going to work, visiting family or going to the doctor should worry that the person sitting next to them possesses a deadly weapon,” the governor said.
The deployment is part of a five-point plan that Ms. Hochul described, which would provide $20 million and pay for 10 teams of mental health workers who would help people on the subway. The plan would also introduce legislation that would allow judges to ban people convicted of violent crimes from riding the subway, install cameras to control fare stations and coordinate with prosecutors to monitor people relapse.
By mid-2022, there will be about one violent crime for every million subway trips, according to analysis by the New York Times, making the chances of becoming a victim of such a crime remote. Since then, those opportunities have become even more remote, as overall crime rates in the transit system have decreased and ridership has increased.
However, the latest deployment comes as overall statistics show a murkier picture of crime on the subway, where three murders have occurred since January and several attacks. brutal attack. including the stabbing of a transit worker on February 29, once again raises questions about the safety of the city’s transportation system.
According to Police Department data, as of March 3, there have been 388 major crimes committed in the city’s transportation system this year. That’s a 13% increase over the same period last year, the data shows.
However, the number of major crimes occurring in the transit system so far this year is about 3% lower than at this time in 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic, when more passengers used the transit system. move more, the ministry’s statistics show.
Ridership remains lower than before the pandemic when five million people rode the subway every day. According to MTA data, there are currently about three million daily riders.
As the city continues to recover from the pandemic, Mayor Adams has said he wants to see a “ubiquitous presence” of police officers on the subway. He was not present at the news conference with Ms. Hochul on Wednesday.
But at a news conference Tuesday, he told reporters that when he talked to subway riders, they told him, “Eric, nothing makes us feel safe.” than seeing that officer at the ticket counter, going through the system, going through the trains. ”
Transportation experts worry that increased vigilance could have the opposite effect than intended, making commuters even more afraid of the subway than reassured.
“Deploying troops to the subway will unfortunately increase the perception of crime,” said Danny Pearlstein, a spokesman for Riders Alliance, a public transportation advocacy group.
Mr. Pearlstein urged officials to instead focus on rooting out problems in the transportation system by providing more housing, health care and other important social services to those who need it. people in need.
Chelsea Rose Marcius And Wesley Parnell Report contributions.
