Police Officers Disappear From Subways After Money Runs Out

By Yehudit Garmaise

Wondering where the police officers have gone after making a brief appearance underground to combat subway crime, which has already spiked 23% this year?

Just last week, not only was a 29-year-old Brazilian tourist slashed in the neck by an unprovoked criminal at a subway station in Queens, but a male cellist suffered his second attack underground in one year when struck in the head with his own metal water bottle in an unprovoked attack perpetrated by a woman at the 34th Street Herald Square Station in Manhattan.

Reporters are asking Mayor Adams, “Where are the extra police officers we were promised at subway stations and on the trains?”

“We had to scale back because the money ran out,” admitted Mayor Adams at his weekly press conference at City Hall.

After rolling out 2022’s Subway Safety Plan, which dramatically increased the number of visible police officers underground, the mayor said, “We saw amazing results.”

Now, NYPD’s First Deputy Commissioner First Deputy Commissioner Tania Kinsella and the Chief of Transit Police Michael Kemper want to deploy police officers to serve 12-hour tours to monitor crime underground, explained Mayor Adams.

To pay overtime to the police officers stationed at subway stations for 12-hour shifts, the mayor plans to speak with Kemper and the governor to secure additional funding.

Police officers like the longer tours because they “would rather have more days off,” the mayor said. “So, the longer tours are not only good for [more police] action but good for officers’ morale.”

What the mayor wants from the NYPD underground are “more visibility and more movement,” he said. “We want officers walking through the trains, being at platforms, being there to talk in booths, and identifying where the crime is actually taking place.”

A substantial amount of that crime is taking place on our subways, but proportionate to the number of subway riders, the crime rates are low, said the mayor, who insisted the subway is safe.

“Of the 4 million New Yorkers who ride the subway each day, six people are victims of felonies,” Adams said. “That is six too many. We want to get down to zero.”