Crime is leaving the station.
The Large Apple has lastly seen subway crime crater — with the numbers even dipping beneath pre-pandemic ranges — a milestone that NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch credited Thursday to a surge of cops within the system.
Tisch, throughout a information convention with Mayor Eric Adams unveiling town’s first-quarter crime statistics, mentioned main offenses total within the subways have dropped 18% — the second-lowest degree in 27 years.
“There have been zero murders in our subways this quarter, the primary time that that has occurred since 2018,” she mentioned, referring to the interval masking the primary three months of the 12 months.
“After we introduced this plan alongside the mayor again in January, we promised actual outcomes, and boy did we get them.”
The transit security plan that Tisch had unveiled in January got here as New Yorkers had been overwhelmed with worry after a wave of subway violence, together with a girl fatally set ablaze on a Brooklyn practice automobile.
Tisch responded by deploying 200 cops to trains and platforms, in addition to flooding lots of extra to transit hubs in an effort to assist a Gov. Kathy Hochul-hatched plan to place two officers on each in a single day subway.
Straphangers have seen a distinction, telling The Submit on Thursday that they’ve began feeling much less afraid to take the trains.
“The subway feels loads safer,” new child care specialist Carol Sparks, 69, who rides the subway 5 days every week from her Flatlands, Brooklyn, house mentioned on the Wall Road station.
“There’s not as a lot abuse or individuals disturbing you,” she mentioned. “Extra police is the reply. When there are extra police, the subway is safer.”
Laci Komula, 36, a customer from Louisville, Kentucky, on the town for the week along with her 9- and 12-year-old sons, mentioned she has heard horror tales about random shovings and panhandlers harassing vacationers.
However to this point, she has been pleasantly stunned as she and her sons have caught the subway throughout town, from South Ferry to the Pure Historical past Museum on the Higher West Facet.
“We haven’t had any points by any means on the subway or strolling round,” she mentioned. “It feels just like the worry has actually gone down.”
The transit crime statistics, nonetheless, do have some important potential caveats.
Subway ridership remains to be beneath pre-pandemic ranges, Metropolitan Transportation Authority knowledge exhibits — that means evaluating crime ranges will not be an apples-to-apples correlation.
Ridership in March stood at roughly 111 million, about 23% lower than the identical month in 2019, knowledge exhibits.
An total dip in transit crime additionally will not be as vital as the kind of offenses, mentioned Aaron Chalfin, affiliate professor and graduate chair of criminology on the College of Pennsylvania.
Chalfin research longer crime traits, and has discovered felony assaults within the subway system tripled from 2009 to 2023.
NYPD crime knowledge exhibits 144 felony assaults within the subway system to this point this 12 months, roughly even with the identical interval in 2024.
However felony assaults are up 6.7% in comparison with two years in the past and a whopping 54.8% in comparison with 2019, the info exhibits.
“That is mainly a continuation of what we have now seen (in our analysis) with theft declining over the long run and assaults rising,” Chalfin mentioned.
“The decline in total subway crime is notable and ought to be understood alongside a long-term improve in assaults underground that predates the pandemic. The context continues to be vital.”
And never all straphangers felt secure figuring out subway crime is trending down.
“I’m a brief, single girl, so I by no means really feel secure within the subway,” mentioned Simone Marshall, 27, a content material producer and self-described “occasional influencer.”
“After all I’m pleased to listen to subway crime is down. I’ve undoubtedly seen much more cops within the stations, however correlation doesn’t equal causation.”
In an announcement, MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber hailed the info as “nice information for New Yorkers.”
“As we have now been saying all 12 months, the steps that the Governor, Metropolis Corridor, the NYPD, and the MTA have taken are working and making the system safer,” Lieber mentioned. “Certainly, crime numbers have been pushed right down to file lows. And we’re not completed. We’ll all the time proceed to battle to guarantee that crime retains taking place and we’ll proceed working with District Attorneys to guarantee that anybody committing a criminal offense is held accountable.”
Supply hyperlink
