The NYPD’s top transit cop on Thursday insisted the subway isn’t as dangerous as people think it is — despite a string of recent high-profile assaults.
“The fact is that we are still battling the impression that crime is out of control on the subway, and this is not the case,” Chief Kathleen O’Reilly told MTA board members
Subway crime dropped more than 56 percent last month compared to December 2019 –however there was also a nearly 70 percent drop in ridership during the same period.
Overall, major crimes declined 32 percent year-over-year, and 56 percent in the months following Gov. Andrew Cuomo imposing four-hour nightly subway shutdowns, O’Reilly said.
In December, meanwhile, every single major crime category — murder, rape, robbery, grand larceny, felony assault and burglary — was either down or even compared to the previous year, according to NYPD stats.
O’Reilly nevertheless acknowledged a string of “high profile vicious isolated incidents” — including one in Manhattan on Tuesday where a woman was shoved against a moving train.
The attacker “was not on our radar as a threat to the public,” she said, adding that police were on the platform at the time of the incident.
“These few vicious, isolated incidents don’t represent the majority of the subway system,” O’Reilly told board members. “This incident demonstrates how even the most robust police presence does not always prevent crime.”
There have been several other shovings in recent months, including a 32-year-old man pushed onto the tracks at Times Square-42nd Street in January by an attacker, and a station attendant shoved at the Nassau Avenue station in Brooklyn on Christmas Eve.
MTA Interim Transit President Sarah Feinberg has repeatedly asked for more cops in the transit system.
“I will always feel like any significant crime that happens in our system is too many, one too many,” Feinberg told reporters after Thursday’s meeting.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been quoted as saying anything’s out of control. What we’ve said is we want these numbers to come down and we’re worried about what we do see, and even one of these events is just far too many.”
