NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – New York State will send about 1,000 personnel from the state police, MTA police and National Guard into the subway system to help the NYPD combat a spike in crime, Gov. Kathy Hochul said Wednesday as she and other officials laid out measures that include increased bag checks, the accelerated installation of cameras on subway trains and a potential three-year transit ban for criminals.
The surge of personnel will include 750 National Guard members and 250 officers from the New York State Police and the MTA Police. Hochul said their primary role will be to help the NYPD conduct random bag checks at heavily trafficked stations, an added security measure Mayor Eric Adams first mentioned Tuesday. They'll also help patrol stations.
While bag checks are already conducted randomly at some high-profile stations, officials are looking to expand the checks, specifically to look for weapons. Riders can decline the bag check at risk of being refused entry into the transit system.
“There’s no right to take our subways, it’s a privilege,” the governor said as she outlined a five-point subway safety plan during a news conference with MTA Chair Janno Lieber at the NYC Transit Rail Control Center on West 54th Street in Manhattan.
The 1,000 state personnel will be in addition to 1,000 NYPD officers who were already surged into the transit system last month in response to a 46% increase in transit crime in January.
The MTA will also accelerate camera installation throughout the transit system. Not only will cameras be added to every subway car, as already planned, they’ll also be installed in conductor cabins.
Hochul said she’ll also convene a new Subway Violence Strategic Partnership, which aims to improve coordination between the state, the NYPD and the district attorney’s offices. As part of the plan, the MTA Police will develop a new early warning system to flag recidivist offenders for district attorney offices during booking processes.
The state will also surge Subway Co-Response Outreach (SCOUT) teams—a $20 million effort to support the Safe Options Support (SOS) teams that already provide mental health treatment and supportive housing outreach in the transit system.
Additionally, the governor said she will propose a bill amending state laws to allow courts to ban anyone from riding the subway or buses for at least three years if they’re convicted of a violent crime against another passenger. It would be in addition to a similar law enacted in 2020 that applies to crimes against MTA personnel.
While Adams was not with Hochul for the announcement--both the mayor and governor said it was a scheduling issue--he told 1010 WINS on Wednesday morning that in addition to the bag checks, the city is looking at high-tech metal detectors for the subway.
The mayor insisted subway crime is not out of control as headlines may suggest, noting more than 4 million people ride the system every day and there are only a handful of felonies committed.
“Our goal is the omnipresence of police, doing the bag checks again, and making sure our police are moving throughout the system,” the mayor said.
The focus on the subway comes after transit crime spiked 13% across January and February compared to the same period in 2023. There were a number of high-profile attacks, including the near-deadly slashing of a subway conductor in Brooklyn last week and multiple fatal shootings on the subway in the Bronx in recent weeks.
Just this week, a man was kicked onto the tracks at random at Penn Station, and riders were slashed and punched on the A line in Manhattan, among other crimes.
Most recently, police were investigating two more subway crimes from Tuesday; a 34-year-old man was struck in the head with a metal object unprovoked at the Grand Avenue–Newtown station in Elmhurst shortly before 1 p.m. And a 61-year-old man was attacked with an umbrella during a dispute at the 86th Street N/Q/R station on the Upper East Side around 4:30 p.m. Both victims are expected to recover. No arrests have been made.