The health of the subway is crucial to New York’s overall vitality, which makes ensuring that passengers feel safe a top priority for the public officials managing the city’s post-pandemic recovery.
On Wednesday, about a week after a train conductor was slashed across the neck on a southbound A train in Brooklyn, Gov. Kathy Hochul said that she would deploy hundreds of National Guard soldiers and State Police troopers in the system. The reinforcements will patrol platforms and help check bags.
The first signs of the new initiative were on display Wednesday evening at Grand Central Terminal, where about a dozen state troopers, National Guard members and police officers stood near a makeshift station where bags were being checked.
One officer stood at the base of a down escalator directing people toward the station and allowing dozens of people to pass without being stopped.
“I’m glad you guys are here,” a woman yelled toward the officers. Another man shook his head after his bag was inspected.
Matteo Biasin, a chemical engineer from Italy who visits the city once a month for work, was among those having his bag checked.
“It feels like more safety for me,” he said.
Mr. Biasin, 51, said he was generally more at ease on the trains than on the city’s streets. “Honestly,” he said, “I feel safer in the subway than outside.”
Here’s what we know about crime in the subway:
Is crime a problem in the subway?
Although surveys by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates the subway, show that a number of riders feel unsafe, data has not always confirmed the public’s perception.
Crime rates jumped during the coronavirus pandemic starting in 2020, but the subway became safer last year.
Still, some riders are anxious. “Perception becomes reality for people,” said Lisa Daglian, executive director of the authority’s Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee, a watchdog group. “If you look at crime reports that numbers are going down, but you hear your neighbors say that they’re afraid to ride, then that becomes your reality.”
In mid-2022, there was about one violent crime per one million rides on the subway, according to a New York Times analysis. Since then, the overall crime rate has fallen and ridership has increased, making the likelihood of being a victim of a violent crime even more remote. Last year, overall crime in the transit system fell nearly 3 percent compared with 2022 as the number of daily riders rose 14 percent.
The downward trend stalled early this year, with the number of major crimes in the transit system jumping in January before dipping again in February. Through March 3, there had been three homicides in the system, compared with one in the same period last year, according to police data. Overall, major crimes, including felony assaults, burglaries and grand larcenies, have increased 13 percent so far this year, the data shows.
Through Feb. 25, the authorities tallied six assaults against subway employees, up from five last year, according to police data.
What is being done?
In the past two years, state and city leaders have introduced several anti-crime initiatives in the subway, including increasing overtime pay for police officers and beginning to remove severely mentally ill homeless people from the system.
Officials have also installed hundreds of additional surveillance cameras, including in subway cars.
Mayor Eric Adams announced last month that 1,000 more uniformed officers would be added in the subway, and Ms. Hochul on Wednesday released what she described as a five-point plan meant to combat crime in the system. The plan included deploying state law enforcement officers as well as measures that require the approval of state lawmakers and would allow judges to ban people convicted of committing a violent crime from the subway.
“I think these initiatives are going to make the system actually safer and feel safer,” Janno Lieber, the M.T.A.’s chairman and chief executive, said after the governor’s announcement.
The authority is also testing new fare gates to stop people from jumping over turnstiles and metal platform barriers to keep riders from falling onto the train tracks.
How much is being spent?
According to data from the city comptroller, the city spent a total of $821 million on police officer overtime in the 2023 fiscal year — about 34 percent of the city’s total overtime budget of $2.42 billion and the most among all agencies.
Nearly $89 million of the $821 million went to officers patrolling the transit system. An additional $66 million in transit overtime came from state funding, a sharp increase from the roughly $4 million the city received for that purpose in some recent years.
Most of that money went to paying for police officers to work an additional 1,200 overtime shifts per day. City Council members are expected to meet on March 20 to review police overtime for the 2023 fiscal year and the department’s proposed budget for fiscal 2024.
Why is subway crime a priority?
The M.T.A.’s recovery from the pandemic depends on passengers coming back in higher numbers, and transit leaders are feeling pressure to make the system more inviting.
New York Democrats are also preparing for the November election and are trying to address perceptions about rising crime, an issue that Republicans relied on to win congressional races in 2022 across the state.
Even as the likelihood of being a crime victim remains remote for most riders, random attacks have shaken some commuters. During the morning rush in April 2022, a gunman carried out a mass shooting on the N train. A Goldman Sachs employee, Daniel Enriquez, was fatally shot on a Q train that May. A woman was shoved against a moving subway train the same month.