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 New York State Police officers in the system. They will patrol platforms and help check bags.
Here’s what we know about crime in the subway:
Is crime a problem in the subway?
Although surveys by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority show that many riders feel unsafe, data has not always confirmed the public’s perception.
Crime rates jumped during the pandemic starting in 2020, but the subway became safer last year.
But some riders are still nervous. “Perception becomes reality for people,” said Lisa Daglian, executive director of the M.T.A.’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 1 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 falling victim to a violent crime even more remote. Last year, overall crime in the transit system fell by nearly 3 percent compared with 2022, as the number of daily riders rose by 14 percent.
The downward trend stalled early this year because of a January jump in major crimes, which subsided in February. Through March 3, there were three homicides in the transit system, compared with one over the same time last year, according to Police Department data. Overall, major crimes — which include felony assaults, burglaries and grand larcenies — have increased by 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 launched several anti-crime initiatives in the subway, including extra overtime for police officers and the involuntary removal of severely mentally ill homeless people.
Officials have also installed hundreds of additional surveillance cameras, including in subway cars.
Mayor Eric Adams announced last month that an additional 1,000 uniformed officers would be added in subways, and Ms. Hochul on Wednesday released what she described as a five-point plan to combat crime in the system. It included the deployment of more state law enforcement officers as well as measures that would have to be approved by the State Legislature to allow judges to ban people convicted of a violent crime from the subways.
“I think these initiatives are going to make the system actually safer and feel safer,” Janno Lieber, the chairman and chief executive of the M.T.A., said after the announcement.
The M.T.A. is also testing new fare gates to stop turnstile jumpers 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 fiscal year 2023 — about 34 percent of the $2.42 billion that the city spent on all overtime. The department’s overtime was the highest of any city agency.
Of the $821 million in officer overtime, the city spent nearly $89 million on patrolling the transit system. An additional $66 million in transit overtime came from state funding, a dramatic increase from the roughly $4 million it gave to the city for police transit overtime in 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 Department overtime in fiscal year 2023 and the agency’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2024.
Why is subway crime such 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, which Republicans in 2022 used to win congressional races across the state.
Even as the likelihood of being a victim of a crime has been remote for most riders, random attacks have left commuters shaken. 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 shot dead on the Q train that May. A woman was shoved against a moving subway train last year.
In an M.T.A. survey this January, nearly 20 percent of riders said they would ride the subway more often if there were fewer people behaving erratically in the trains and stations, and more than 10 percent said they would do so if they could see more police officers and security guards in the system.
