Hundreds of people sleep and travel on the subway
Photo: ANDRÉS CORREA GUATARASMA
Civilians are not the only ones targeted during the recent rise of violence in the New York subway.
Serious crimes against subway police are also on the rise, with 15 attacks on police officers in January, up from just 5 in the same month in 2020, NYPD chief traffic officer Kathleen O’Reilly warned on Thursday.
Speaking at an MTA board meeting, O’Reilly said the figure represents a large part of the total. 43 serious attacks on the subway last month.
The release of the statistics comes amid growing concern about the growing violence on public transportation in New York, with reports on passengers beaten, pushed, cut and up to two killed in recent weeks.
New York City Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said last week that he would strengthen police presence with another 500 officers after the bloody night of Feb. 12 that left two dead and two others injured, all attacked by the same person on line A.
MTA President Pat Foye said Thursday that the NYPD has already sent 644 police officers to the Metro system in recent days, but that is not enough. And he reiterated the MTA’s call to continue patrolling 1,500 officers in the subway.
“This is a good first step,” Foye said of the agents seconded so far. “But we will need about 900 extra police officers to provide the kind of coverage and security that our users and employees deserve. ”
“Our request will take us back to the NYPD subway staffing level that existed in 1995, when the New York City Transit Police merged with the NYPD to form today’s NYPD transit office,” he said.
Traffic officials say crime in general has fallen on the subway, and the number of passengers has been reduced by 70% due to the pandemic, but attacks have increased.
The violence and the “mental health crisis” the city is experiencing are wreaking havoc on the transport system, denounced the city’s chief of transit (NYC Transit), Sarah Feinberg, in January in a letter to Mayor Bill de Blasio.