New York City’s top subway honcho is pushing back on reports of a crime wave on the rails, saying incidents are down and arrests are up since scores of extra cops flooded the system last month.
MTA Chief Executive Officer Janno Lieber said Monday that although underground felony crimes had soared 40% so far this year through October compared to the same period in 2021 — roughly keeping pace with ridership increases — the past 28 days had seen a decrease in such incidents.
“In the month of November, this is important, we’re actually down 13%,” Lieber said, referring to underground felonies, on Spectrum News NY1′s “Inside City Hall.”
“So, since the governor and the mayor took action in late October to increase the number of NYPD officers and MTA [police] officers in the system, we’ve actually had a statistically significant reversal of that trend, so that’s good,” he said.
“Last week alone we were down 22% versus 2021,” Lieber told anchor Errol Louis of subway felonies.
Lieber added that underground felonies last week also dropped 6% from pre-pandemic days in 2019, although that was when ridership was much higher.
“There’s less crime in the subway system than there was before COVID,” he said.
“Now, ridership is down too — so way, way, way too early to declare victory — but there is a positive trend, and we’re going to keep pushing,” he said.
The “Cops, Cameras, Care” initiative was announced by Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams two weeks before the Albany Democrat faced a challenge from surging law-and-order Republican challenger Lee Zeldin. The program added 1,200 extra daily overtime shifts for cops to patrol the rails and ramped up the installation of cameras in the MTA’s 6,500 subway cars.
Some straphangers and transit workers who spoke to The Post on Tuesday said the influx of Finest hasn’t left them feeling any safer.
“Nobody feels safe. If anyone tells you different, they are totally wrong,” said construction worker Richarido Zacatias, 51. “I’ve lived here 40 years, and every day, it’s worse.
A 19-year-old woman who only gave the name Mimi said she “definitely” doesn’t feel safer.
“The police are always on their phone,” she claimed. “My friend got smacked on the train right in front of a cop, and they didn’t do s–t.”
A train operator who declined to be named called for “some old-style Rudolph Giuliani-type policing in the city,” referring to the former mayor’s focus on “quality-of-life crimes.
“They do not have enough police to cover the city — and that’s a fact,” the motorman said. “Criminals know it, and the city knows it. [Officials] are going to keep spinning the story however they’re going to spin, it but it’s not going to change.”
Other riders were on the fence about the added cops’ presence.
“Does it really deter [emotionally disturbed people] from what they want to do when you’re dealing with mental health? Not really,” said a female straphanger who wouldn’t give her name but said she works in public health.
“It’s safer in terms of seeing the police when it comes to theft and stuff like that. But like if it’s mental-health issues, it’s a whole lot different.”
But some straphangers said they feel more secure these days.
“I feel much safer when I see the police on the platforms and on the trains. I’ve noticed less homeless people on the trains, less homeless people on the platforms and less shady-looking people around,” said a woman who didn’t want to be named.
A man named Danny, who works in marketing but didn’t want to give his name or age, said, “I feel safe.
“But I think most of the arrest that are being made are from fare jumpers and not from people who are doing violent crimes,” he added.
On Monday, Lieber also touted a sharp increase in arrests and a reduction of hate crimes in the subway.
Cops busted 47% more criminals underground between January and October compared to the same period in 2021, and there was a 93% increase in subway arrests for minor crimes, Lieber said.
Hate crimes against Asians on the rails were down 41%, and bias crimes against white people had plummeted by 83% during that time period, he told NY1.
Arrests in the system were down 18% compared to the same period in 2019, when ridership was much higher, according to NYPD statistics.
Lieber told the local cable news outlet the additional cops and cameras have helped drive down crimes of opportunity in the transit system while contributing to a perception of safety.
“We do want to make sure that there’s a sense of order that’s coming back into the system,” he said.
“There’s no question during COVID, this is true of all our public spaces in New York, there is, there has crept in some sense of disorder.
“And in the subway, small things like people smoking on trains, people, open drug use, you know that is alarming to people cause they wonder, ‘What might that person do to me in a closed subway car?’ ”
Additional reporting by David Meyer
