More transit summonses were doled out during the first month of Mayor Eric Adams’ administration than the month before he took office, and subway crime spiked, too, newly released statistics show.
The NYPD reported a slight bump in felonies on the subways in January compared to December, despite significantly lower ridership because of the Omicron variant, according to The Post’s analysis of Police Department and MTA figures.
The number of felonies per million riders jumped from 2.46 in December to 3.11 last month, the data shows.
Both figures far exceed the rate of 1.88 felonies per million reported by NYPD in January 2020, two months before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the city.
The NYPD reported a total of 461 felony assaults in the subway last year — a rate not seen since 1997, according to data released last month.
Police officials on Friday said summonses and arrests had increased in the NYPD’s first month under Adams, who campaigned on a law-and-order platform that included reining in mass-transit disorder.
“Year to date, our arrests are up 45 percent in the Transit Bureau. Our [subway] summonses are up 20 percent. We’ve written 10,000 [subway] summonses for infractions,” NYPD Transit Bureau Chief Jason Wilcox said during an appearance alongside the mayor.
Daily subway trips fell from a pandemic high of around 3.4 million in December to barely over a million in early January. Paul Martinka
Undercover NYPD officers write a summons for turnstile jumping in the 34th street N/R/Q/W subway station. Stephen YangThe NYPD data showed Transit Bureau arrests actually dropped 578 to 527 from December to January — but summonses soared 22 percent to 7,115 total for the month.
Adams took office Jan. 1 and pledged to reassign NYPD officers on desk duty to subway patrols. The city has nevertheless continued to see tragedies on the rails, including the subway shove killing of Michelle Go — the only murder to occur in the system in January.
Other victims include a man beaten and robbed at gunpoint, and Noel Soto, who survived an alleged gang assault on New Year’s Day and is suing the MTA over the ordeal.
NYPD officers target subway turnstile jumpers with a $100 summonses at the Bedford avenue L subway station. Paul MartinkaThe mayor outraged New Yorkers after Go’s death when he insisted they were safe underground — and only experiencing “the perception of fear.” He later walked back those comments and said that even he didn’t feel safe “when I take the train.”
On Friday, Hizzoner unveiled a new crackdown to clean up the transit system. The plan will force vagrants to exit trains and stations at “end-of-line terminals” and increase the number of nurses and other professionals to connect them with services.
“No more smoking. No more doing drugs. No more sleeping. No more doing barbecues on the subway system. No more just doing whatever you want,” Adams said Friday.
NYPD officers patrol subway stations to make riders feel safe. Paul Martinka
The number of felonies per million riders jumped from 2.46 in December to 3.11 last month. Paul Martinka“No. Those days are over. Swipe your MetroCard. Ride the system. Get off at your destination. That’s what this administration is saying.”
Daily subway trips fell from a pandemic high of around 3.4 million in December to a barely over a million in early January but crept back toward pre-Omicron levels in recent weeks.
Subway crime averaged 1.47 felonies per million riders in all of 2019, when daily ridership was over 5 million.
MTA officials have said increased ridership is one piece of making transit safe.
