ALBANY, NY — NYPD officers will be posted on every overnight subway train for the next six months under a new plan by Gov. Kathy Hochul to tackle rising transit violence.
Hochul unveiled the subway police surge during her “State of the State” speech Tuesday in Albany – and said the state will pick up the tab.
“I want to see uniformed police on the platforms, but more importantly, we will put an officer on every single train, overnight – 9 p.m. to 5 a.m – over the next six months and the state will support these efforts financially,” she said.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, in a subsequent statement, clarified that two officers will be posted in every train.
“The most effective way to prevent crime and make people feel safe in the subway system is to assign more police resources there,” she said. “This proposal will allow us to put more officers on the trains, including two officers on every overnight train.”
The plan to surge cops into overnight trains was one of the few detailed proposals Hochul unveiled in her nearly hour-long speech, although she didn’t specify how the state will pay for them or how much it will cost.
The surge is arguably a mixed message from Hochul, who has crowed about increased subway safety as recently as Dec. 23 – mere hours after a sleeping straphanger was killed when she was set on fire aboard a Brooklyn train.
Hochul, during her address, also said she’ll push for funding going toward the MTA installing MTA to install platform barriers in 100 more subway stations, as well as bright LED lighting in every stop.
Both are part of the MTA’s massive capital plan, which is $33 billion short and faces an uncertain future in Albany.
The barrier proposal isn’t fully funded and would unfold some time over the next five years. The system has 472 stations, meaning only a fifth of stations would be covered.
Mayor Eric Adams said none of the proposals by themselves will stop the flow of random violence in the subways, but will work together much like a series of dams.
“There are many rivers that feed the sea of violence,” he said. “You have to dam each one of them.”
– Additional reporting by Tina Moore
