The NYPD’s top transit cop on Wednesday railed against “fearmongering” about subway crime — arguing that last week was the second-safest period in the system on record.
“What will hinder rider confidence is continued fearmongering,” NYPD Transit Bureau Chief Kathleen O’Reilly told MTA board members at the transit agency’s monthly meeting — in a not-so-subtle swipe at transit leaders who have said that crime could deter New Yorkers from returning as the COVID-19 pandemic eases.
“It’s a disservice to New Yorkers to advance the narrative in crime is soaring in the subways, when it’s simply not the case,” she continued. “Crime is at record lows in almost every category.”
Transit police recorded just 15 crimes on New York City’s subway system last week, she noted — the second-lowest seven-day period on record.
Critics have pointed out that while the number of subway crimes is down, it is relative to ridership, which has also plummeted amid the pandemic.
Recent NYPD stats show 2.32 felony crimes per million riders in March 2021 — compared to 1.47 crimes per million riders across the year 2019.
NYPD Transit Bureau Chief Kathleen O’Reilly has slammed the MTA for “fearmongering.” Daniel William McKnight“Everybody, including everybody on the board and on this call, should be telling people the subway system is safe,” O’Reilly said, echoing criticisms lobbed last week by her boss, Mayor Bill de Blasio.
“The subway is safe. My family rides the subway,” O’Reilly said. “We have to get that message out instead of talking about crime in the subway.”
Those comments did not sit well with Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s appointed board members and MTA leaders, who effectively control the authority.
Police at the scene where a woman was critically injured after being stabbed on the A train at 207th Street on Feb. 13. Christopher Sadowski“Just to say crime is down and it’s safe is a fake narrative,” said board member and Cuomo confidante Larry Schwartz, while Cuomo “enforcer” Linda Lacewell insisted the stats were beside the point.
“Public safety is not just being safe, it’s feeling safe — and experiencing fear while in the city or going into the transit system is a public safety issue,” Lacewell said.
“It’s our obligation … to do everything we can do make sure that they’re not in fear when they’re in any part of the system.”
Just 15 crimes were recorded on NYC’s subway system last week. Matthew McDermottMTA customer surveys have found crime and harassment are among the top concerns of both current and “lapsed” transit riders, with 36 percent of lapsed riders saying those concerns are holding them back from returning to the system.
Neither the MTA nor the NYPD keep records of instances of harassment, many of which go unreported.
“Me going out there and saying, ‘The system doesn’t feel right, the system doesn’t feel safe, we’re hearing from this from our customers all the time,’ does not mean I’m rooting against New York, and it doesn’t mean I’m rooting against the system and it doesn’t mean I’m a fear monger,” Interim Transit President Sarah Feinberg said in response to O’Reilly’s criticism.
Subway riders cautiously travel on the trains as the NYPD patrols the Lexington Avenue/59th Street station after two people were slashed. Matthew McDermott“We’ve got a system that sometimes feels desolate, which is a problem for riders who are entering cars by themselves or sitting in stations and having interactions with folks who are either experiencing a mental health crisis, or are aggressive in other ways,” she said.
“We need to acknowledge that the way the system feels right now is not the way it should feel.”
