The Big Apple may finally be turning a corner as subway crime plunged to levels not seen in decades, aside from the height of the pandemic.
The New York Police Department announced on Tuesday that subway crime is down 21.5 percent from the same time last year, after Mayor Eric Adams ordered more cops to patrol the underground transit system.
In just the first nine weeks of 2023, authorities say, cops doled out nearly 10,000 more summonses than at the start of the last year.
Every category of serious felonies are now down, except for burglaries, which remained flat with two reported so far this year.
Those are the lowest levels of felony crime on the subways dating back to the beginning of the data-collecting Compstat system in the mid-1990s, the New York Post reports, excluding the kickoff of 2021 when the COVID pandemic hit.
‘Obviously, crime is down, we’re proud,’ Transit Chief Michael Kemper said at a news conference on Tuesday. ‘This is real progress.’
He credited proactive policing on minor offenses as well as serious crimes.
Data released by the NYPD shows cops have issued 75.6 percent more fare-evasion tickets over the first nine weeks of 2023, totaling 21,360 compared to 12,154 tickets issued over the same period last year.
In total, all summonses were up by more than 12,000 — or an 83.5 percent increase from the same time last year.
‘I want to be clear, and I gotta give credit where credit is due: This is a direct result of the men and women of the NYPD, and I think there’s so much to just the increased police presence to deter crime,’ Kemper said.
‘But focusing on quality of life, whether it’s fare evasion, whether it’s disorderly conduct, whether it’s smoking, just setting the tone of law and order in the subway system is absolutely part of the reason.’
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He also cited the ‘phenomenal detective work’ of officers who are catching criminals before they could commit repeat crimes, and said much of the recent progress was due to Mayor Eric Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul increasing police presence in the subway systems in October.
Before that, crime was up more than 40 percent for the year.
Under Mayor Eric Adams ‘subway safety plan’ more than 1,000 extra cops were patrolling the transit system. The mayor is seen here in November with officers Taufique Bokth and Brunel Victor after thy saved the life of a man who collapsed on the subway tracks
The New York Police Department increased officer presence by approximately 1,200 additional overtime officer shifts each day
In January 2022, Adams publicly said he did not feel safe riding the subways as he introduced his ‘subway safety plan,’ which put more than 1,000 extra cops per day in the city’s subways.
And for her part, Hochul announced in September an initiative to install two cameras in every subway car by 2024.
She also said the following month that the city would receive a ‘significant’ investment from the state’s emergency fund to support an increase of around 1,200 overtime officer shifts on subway platforms and trains each day.
Additionally, the governor said, the transit authority would employ unarmed security guards at turnstiles to increase the security presence and deter fare evasion.
‘We have a crime fighting strategy,’ she said at a news conference in October.
‘We’ve leaned into proven law enforcement strategies, investing in new technologies that will make a difference,’ Hochul said. ‘And we’re providing New Yorkers the support and the help they need.’
