Governor Kathy Hochul, Mayor Eric Adams and Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell announce expanded initiatives to keep New York City subways safe and address transit crime. - Photo by Don Pollard/Office of Governor Hochul
By David Greene
Bronx Voice
October 24, 2022
BRONX - With just 16 days before the midterm elections, when Americans will choose their Senate and Congressional representatives, and New Yorkers will choose their next Governor—current Governor Kathy Hockul and Mayor Eric Adams announced that NYPD officers will add an extra 1,200 overtime shifts per day so officers can join their Transit counterparts and flood the subways with hundreds of uniformed officers who will be stationed at over 300 stations during peak hours.
At the announcement held at Grand Central Station in Manhattan Hochul called the new deployment, "Cops, Cameras, Care," that will also create dedicated units at psychiatric facilities that will address the homeless on the street and in the subways with severe mental illness as well as new training for MTA Police, NYPD and EMS on dealing with the homeless and those in need of psychiatric evaluation.
Hochul stated, "People are still very much concerned about transit crime. I've heard this from New Yorkers. As I said, I walked the streets, I take the subway to go to baseball games. We're expecting in a few hours there'll be a lot of people taking the four-train up to the Yankees. We all have heard, seen the subways, the stories, the headlines- violent attacks, muggings... Nine homicides in our subway so far this year. Tragic loss of life.”
Hochul continued, "The Mayor and I have been working to find solutions literally since his first day in the job, I believe it was January 6th when we went to the subway together and talked about a new era of cooperation between the state and the city to solve these common problems." The Governor added, "I'm also proud to announce that we're going to help fund the deployment of more NYPD officers to perform these services.”
Appearing with Hochul, Mayor Adams offered, "This effort will help with two things New Yorkers desperately want: The addition of hundreds of additional strategically deployed officers on our trains and help to those suffering from serious mental health illness so they can find a way out of the subway system." He added, "The bottom line is that riders will see more officers in the system, and so will those thinking of breaking the law. On behalf of all New Yorkers, we're thankful for this state investment that will make our subways safer.”
Norwood resident Chris Perkins recalled a recent subway ride, when he told the Bronx Voice, "I just took the subway on Friday, and it blew my mind. I took the 4-Train and when it got to 161st Street (Yankee Stadium) they said, and it's the first time I've heard this announcement, it must have been the first day, because everybody was looking around, like what the hell are they talking about.”
Perkins continued, "We'll anyway, the conductor says, 'This is 161st Street, Yankee Stadium and there is also a police department subway district,' and I was like why would they say that?”
"That was the first time," Perkins recalled, "And we all looked around like crazy, we're like was that a message from him? Is he telling us to watch ourselves and warning us the cops are coming on the train and searching us? That's what I thought. I've never heard that before, I'm thinking the NYPD's coming on the train to search the train.”
Perkins said he'd observed about two officers deployed at every other station between the Bronx and Brooklyn. Recalling that initial announcement, Perkins concluded, "They'd say, 'There are officers on the platform, should you be in need of any assistance,' but the first time it was just weird and then you got used to it along the way and all of a sudden I'm thinking I haven't seen a cop on the subway in three-years and now they were like freaking everywhere.”
Shortly after the joint announcement between Hochul and Adams, Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch Tweeted, "This is unsustainable. The NYPD is more than 1,000 cops below its budgeted headcount. We have 12.45% fewer rank-and-file cops permanently assigned to the subways than we did in 2020. The increased workload is crushing the cops who remain. The answer is not to squeeze them for more forced OT." Lynch added, "Our city must immediately boost pay and improve working conditions in order to recruit and retain enough police officers.”
On September 10, during the "End of Summer Peace Rally" at Devoe Park, State Senator Robert Jackson (D-31) who has served Manhattan for the last three-years, seemed overconfident about his victory come November 8, if elected he would also serve Morris Heights, University Heights, Fordham Heights, Kingsbridge Heights, and a section of Riverdale.
The Bronx Voice asked Jackson if he was worried about a backlash the Democrats could receive regarding bail reform, when Jackson responded, "No, not at all because our bail reform was 2019, we made some changes based on what we thought it was, input we had from other sources in 2020 and 2021, and there is a possibility that we will look at some possible changes," in the future, while adding, "but there's no guarantee.”
Jackson added, "I believe that the Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-35) and (Assembly) Speaker Heastie (D-83) said that we're not looking at that right now.”
Meanwhile, the NYPD has identified and arrested Deshaun Smith, 21, of Brooklyn who was charged with assault, reckless endangerment and harassment after police say he slugged a 62-year-old man as he waited for a train at East 149 Street and the Grand Concourse, in the latest unprovoked subway attack.
The unidentified victim fell to the tracks and was pulled from the tracks by responding officers. The incident was reported at 9:45 p.m. on Sunday, October 23, and did not occur during the "peak hours" of "Cops, Cameras, Care."
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