The New York Police Department has deployed an additional 644 transit officers to city subway stations following the fatal stabbings of two passengers over the weekend and the injuries of two others, though the movement be criticized as inadequate.
The chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which manages the subways, said the additional deployment was well below the 1,500 cops needed to make cyclists feel safe enough to return to the subway in droves.
The NYPD announced this week that it will dispatch 331 cops from the Transit Bureau as well as 313 patrol officers to 68 city subway stations. The ministry as a whole has over 36,000 officers.
“We are able to achieve this through overtime, the deployment of officers normally assigned to administrative duties and the reassignment of other non-transit officers,” said Kathleen O’Reilly, Transit Manager. from the NYPD, to the New York Post.
New York City police officers are seen above patrolling inside the Atlantic Avenue – Barclay’s Center subway station in downtown Brooklyn earlier this week
–
The NYPD deployed an additional 644 police officers to New York City subway stations days after Rigoberto Lopez, 21, was accused of killing two homeless people during a violent 14-hour spree. Lopez is being held without bail
–
Police released an image of the knife Lopez allegedly used to kill two homeless people and injure two more over the weekend
–
Agents will deploy in the system during daily trips during morning and evening rush hours.
“The public can expect to see the ramping up of the uniformed presence in the system for the foreseeable future, patrolling platforms, securing entrances and taking trains,” O’Reilly said.
“I’m here to make sure that all New Yorkers… that we are involved in keeping everyone safe.”
But the MTA Foye told WPIX-TV that the NYPD needs to send an additional 1,000 agents in addition to the 644 deployed this week.
According to Foye, “over 4,000 NYPD agents patrolled the subways” in 1995.
Before the NYPD announced this most recent deployment, there were around 2,400 officers in the subway, according to Foye, who said the public needed to see the same level of police engagement seen in 1995. .
“From a customer perception perspective, customers have to feel secure in order to be able to come back to the system,” Foye said.
“The number of MTA users is critical to the regional recovery of New York City’s economy, and we need additional police resources and, most importantly, additional mental health resources from the city.” .
“There are too many emotionally disturbed people on the streets and in the subway.
The NYPD’s deployment of an additional 644 officers to subways this week is still woefully short, according to MTA chairman Patrick Foye (right). NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea is seen left
–
Since the start of the pandemic, ridership on the New York City subway has fallen by around 90%.
With most subway commuters working from home, the transit system has been severely affected. Some studies have suggested that the pandemic cost the MTA between $ 7 billion and $ 8.5 billion.
The decision to deploy more police comes just days after authorities said Rigoberto Lopez stabbed four homeless people, including two fatally, in the New York City subway.
Lopez was brought to justice for murder and attempted murder on Monday. A court complaint said he confessed to the attacks.
A message requesting comment was left for Lopez’s attorney.
Lopez, 21, who is reportedly suffering from mental illness, was taken into custody on Saturday night at W. 186th St and Audubon Avenue in Washington Heights.
A victim was found dead in a subway train in Queens on Friday evening with multiple stab wounds to the neck and chest, police said.
Two hours later, a 44-year-old woman, Claudine Roberts, was found stabbed to death in a subway car in upper Manhattan.
Police patrol the A Line subway bound for Inwood in Manhattan on Saturday after the NYPD deploys more officers after the stabbing
–
Her father, Winston Roberts, told the New York Post that she has struggled with mental illness since she was a teenager.
She was living in a shelter after being recently released from a hospital, but she stopped by his home only on Wednesday, he said.
“I loved my daughter,” he says. “I tried to do my best for her.
Lopez is also indicted in two more attacks on upper Manhattan subway stations late Friday and early Saturday. The victims, both men, survived.
Authorities believe the four victims were homeless.
The cuts over the weekend – in addition to the spike in violent crime across the city during the nearly year-long pandemic – have heightened concerns about whether and when the city will return to normalcy.
NYPD figures show 1,868 people were hit by gunfire in 1,531 separate shooting incidents last year, which is the combined totals for 2018 and 2019, when 1,820 fatalities and 1,531 shooting incidents were recorded. .
Last year, Police Commissioner Dermot Shea blamed the sharp increase in crime in New York City on new bail reform laws.
The MTA also said transit workers faced an increase in threats, harassment and assaults since the state ordered the metro service to be closed overnight in order to disinfect trains.
In May, the MTA shut down the metro service between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. each night so that the cars could be completely disinfected.
In the 116-year history of the New York City subway, it has interrupted night service a few times, including extreme weather events or worker strikes.
Night service was also briefly suspended following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in Lower Manhattan.
Transit workers say empty stations put them at greater risk.
Police are seen on the Line A subway train to Inwood on Saturday looking for the subway slasher
–
According to the MTA, five metro workers have been assaulted between 1 and 5 a.m. since the entry into force of the shortened schedule last spring.
By comparison, there were only four attacks on employees between those times between May 2019 and January 2020, when trains were running on a full schedule.
But workers’ unions say the real number of incidents in which public transport workers are harassed and threatened is higher, although they are not counted because they do not reach the level of such aggression. as defined by state law.
Since August, the MTA has counted a total of nearly 300 cases of harassment against transit workers at all hours of the day.
The MTA said on Monday that the subways would run for two more hours each day from the end of the month, and that the nightly shutdown of the system for cleaning would be reduced as part of a phased reopening.
Starting Monday, the subways will run until 2 a.m., and will leave at 4 a.m., the first extension of operating hours since the stops were instituted in May of last year to allow for cleanings during the pandemic.
“We have determined that a shortened overnight shutdown is an appropriate step forward towards the return of 24-hour service,” Sarah Feinberg, interim president of New York City Transit, said at a press conference with Governor Andrew Cuomo.
Cleanings that had taken place between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. will continue during the shortened downtime, she said.
“We are confident that we can maintain the cleaning and disinfection that we have been able to do so far,” she said.
–
