Gov. Hochul and Mayor Adams Tout Subway’s Increased Safety, Just Hours Before a Shooting on a Manhattan-Bound N train

 By Yehudit Garmaise

The crime rate on New York City’s subway system is finally returning to pre-pandemic levels, announced Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams on Friday afternoon, just hours before a 34-year-old man was shot as the train approached the Canal Street station at 2:30am early Shabbos morning.

The shooting victim, who was hospitalized, is reportedly in stable condition, and police officers are still looking for both the male suspect and the woman who may or may not have been directly involved in the attack.

The shooting was not great timing, as it took place just hours after CEO Janno Lieber proudly reported a 35% increase in ridership, along with a 28% drop in subway crime this month.

In addition, the governor said that January 2023 is showing the lowest level of transit crime recorded in every January since 1993.

In December 27, 2022, when the MTA announced that riders were finally returning in droves to the subways and that ridership had surpassed 1 billion, 18% of riders, which showed a large increase, reported in an MTA customer satisfaction survey that they were starting to feel “safer” or “much safer” on the trains and in the station.

Gov. Hochul and Mayor Adams attributed the positive trends in subway safety to the measures they took in October 2022, when they dramatically increased the number of uniformed officers patrolling the subway’s platforms and trains

By creating additional 1,200 overtime NYPD subway shifts, the governor and the mayor ensured that police officers would be patrolling the subway for 10,000 more patrol hours each day, which has driven down crime 16% since last fall.

After several cameras failed to work at Sunset Park subway stations on April 12, when Frank James, Jr. opened fire on a Manhattan-bound N train, ensuring that video cameras were working in every subway car was also part of last fall’s subway safety plan.

“We've aggressively installed more and more cameras on an expedited timetable,” Gov. Hochul said on Friday. “I wanted [the process] to go faster and [to] make sure that you know that we have information available if we do need to solve a crime.”

In addition to the increased police presence, Gov. Hochul said that working video cameras installed in every train car serve to deter crimes by reminding potential perpetrations, “that what you're doing to hurt someone else or cause a problem is going to be captured on camera.”

After the governor and the mayor also announced last October that she was deploying mental health teams to connect unhoused high-need New Yorkers with critical intervention services, 650 unhoused New Yorkers since benefitted.

Since last fall, two new in-patient psychiatric facilities also have been providing care for people exhibiting serious mental health issues..”

While giving what she called “a progress report” on how the success of what Gov. Hochul called their Cops, Cameras and Care program, she said, “We are extremely encouraged by the results we've seen from these investments so far, and we are working to continue with this trend.”

“We've been making real progress,” Mayor Adams said. “We'll say we're never finished. 

“As long as there is any crime being committed, we'll never say mission accomplished. Those words will never come from our lips.