New York City’s mayor and the head of the NYPD are expected to share an update on subway crime stats later Wednesday, less than a week after the two gathered to announce a planned gun scanner pilot.
That pilot program, which won’t happen immediately, marked the latest in a series of new initiatives designed to reassure the public after recent high-profile crimes in the transit system.
Mayor Eric Adams and NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban are expected to address commuter concerns at their quarterly crime stats news conference, set for 1 Police Plaza at 1 p.m.
Violence in the subway system is rare, with major crimes dropping nearly 3% from 2022 to 2023 and killings falling from 10 to five during the same span, according to police. But serious incidents have attracted attention, such as a passenger’s slashing of a subway conductor in the neck last month. Four recent homicides also made headlines.
MTA officials say many subway crimes, armed and otherwise, are perpetrated by fare-beaters, as was the case in the Hoyt station shooting, and have plowed copious resources into curbing that problem in recent weeks as well.
The result? Officials said subway crime was down 15% in March compared with the same time in 2023. And after a 46% spike in crime in January, it has since trended down, with a 15% drop in February and another 16% drop thus far in March, NYPD statistics have shown. Adams credits an influx of NYPD officers in January, followed by another flood of cops and state-deployed National Guard troops, with helping to stem the tide.
Nonetheless, as MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber said last week, the perception is it’s a “nightmare” underground. Part of the motive in flooding the system with law enforcement officers, as well as the new push to detect weapons and check bags, is to more closely align the perception of crime in transit with the reality of crime in transit, officials say.
“Public safety is the actual safety and it’s how people are feeling,” Adams said last week. “We know we have over 4 million riders a day and a reliable system. We know we have approximately six felonies a day out of those 4 million riders. But if they don’t feel safe, then we’re not accomplishing our task. Stats don’t matter if people don’t believe they are in a safe environment.”
As of March 28, NYPD officers had seized a total of 450 weapons — including 21 illegal guns — in the New York City transit system this year, compared to 261 weapons — including nine guns — during the same period last year. The NYPD also seized 1,515 weapons in the subway system in 2023, including 1,470 cutting instruments and 45 illegal firearms. That tally was a stark increase from the previous year, when 947 total weapons were seized, including 912 cutting instruments and 35 guns, according to Adams’ administration.
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