NYPD Transit Chief Joins the Chorus of Leaders Promising More Uniformed Police Officers on Subways

By Yehudit Garmaise

Hundreds of additional police officers were deployed to the NYC transit system after a series of violent crimes that took place in the spring of 2021, however, as many riders looked around on trains cars and subway platforms, few police officers were easily visible.

A pair of police officers might be seen walking through the throughfares of larger stations, such as Atlantic-Barclay or Penn Station, however, at most of the 472 subway stations citywide, uniformed police officers have not often been easily spotted.

Jason Wilcox, the new head of the NYPD Transit Bureau, who spoke to Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) board members today, on his first day on the job, said that he wants officers to be present in every corner of the subway stations.

Wilcox, who most recently served as an assistant chief in the NYPD Detective Bureau, and oversaw Manhattan’s transit police from 2006 to 2013, said that the “high visibility” of transit police is the key to calming riders’ discomfort and anxieties about riding the subway: not only after 40-year-old Michelle Alyssa Go was tragically murdered by being shoved onto the tracks, earlier this month, but after one-third violent subway crimes disturbingly have involved what he called, “cutting instruments.”

As opposed to former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s repeated emphasis on mental health workers, which were also unseen, to tend to the needs of the mentally ill on the subways, Wilcox said that uniformed officers on train patrols will be the “foundation” of the police department’s effort to keep mass transit riders safe.

“The absolute foundation of what we’re going to be pushing out is uniformed train patrols,” Wilcox said. “High visibility.”

Mayor Adams and NYPD Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell have also pledged an increase police presence on the subways of uniformed officers, who move around the subways, stations, and platforms, and also engage in conversations with the riders to both gather intelligence and make for a nicer, less fearful, and more comfortable experience.

MTA Chairman Janno Lieber has also frequently highlighted police visibility as a missing, necessary piece of how the NYPD can better protect the public from crime on the subway.

“We need cops on platforms. We need cops on trains,” Lieber said on Monday. “Those are the places that people are feeling vulnerable, and they are vulnerable.”

“We want the riders, New Yorkers, people that come here, work here, go to the school here, to see our officers, to feel safer,” said Wilcox. “We’re determined to make that happen.

“[Police] will be on the trains. They will be on the platforms, they will be moving around Saturday night, Monday night, every night, every day.

“You will see them. They will be there to protect you. They will be there to make you feel safer, and we are determined in that effort.”