Hundreds of people sleep and roam in the subway
Photo: ANDRÉS CORREA GUATARASMA
Civilians aren’t the only ones targeted in the recent wave of violence in the New York City subway.
Serious crimes against subway officers are also on the rise, With 15 attacks on police officers in January, compared to just 5 in the same month in 2020, NYPD Traffic Chief Kathleen O’Reilly warned Thursday.
At an MTA board meeting, O’Reilly said this figure was a big part of the total 43 serious attacks on the subway last month.
The publication of the statistics comes amid growing concerns about an increase in violence on NYC’s public transit system, with reports from passengers are beaten, pushed, cut and killed up to two in recent weeks.
New York Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said last week that he would bolster the police force with about 500 additional officers after the bloody night of February 12 that left two dead and two others injured, all attacked by the same person in Line A.
MTA president Pat Foye said Thursday that the NYPD has already deployed an additional 644 police officers to the subway system in recent days, but that is not enough. And he reiterated the MTA’s call for a total of 1,500 additional agents to patrol the subway.
“This is a good first step,” said Foye of the agents deployed so far. “But we need about 900 additional police officers to provide the coverage and security our users and employees deserve ”.
“Our request will bring us back to the NYPD’s workforce on the subways that existed in 1995, when the New York City Transit Police merged with the NYPD to form the current NYPD Transit Office,” he said.
Traffic officials say crime in general has decreased in the metro and passenger numbers decreased by 70% as a result of the pandemic, but attacks have increased.
The violence and “mental health crisis” that the city is going through is causing widespread damage to the transportation system, in January, denounced the head of the city’s transit (NYC Transit) Sarah Feinberg in a letter to Mayor Bill de Blasio.