Hundreds of people sleep and walk in the Metro
Photo: ANDRÉS GUATARASMA BELT
Civilians are not the only ones attacked during the recent escalation of violence in the New York Metro.
Serious crimes against police officers in the basement are also on the rise, with 15 attacks on police officers in January, compared to just 5 during the same month in 2020, NYPD traffic chief Kathleen O’Reilly warned on Thursday.
Speaking at an MTA board meeting, O’Reilly said that figure was a large part of the total 43 serious assaults on the Metro last month.
The release of the statistics comes amid growing concern over increased violence on NYC public transportation, with reports from passengers beaten, pushed, cut and up to two killed in recent weeks.
New York City Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said last week that he would bolster the police presence with about 500 more officers after the bloody night of Feb. 12 that left two dead and two injured, all attacked by a same person on line A.
MTA President Pat Foye said Thursday that New York City police have already deployed 644 more police officers in the Metro system in recent days, but that is not enough. And he reiterated the MTA’s call for a total of 1,500 more officers to patrol the basement.
“This is a good first step,” Foye commented on the agents deployed so far. “But we will need approximately 900 more police officers to provide the kind of coverage and security that our users and employees deserve. “
“Our application will take us back to the NYPD underground staffing level that existed in 1995, when the New York City Traffic Police merged with NYPD to form the NYPD Traffic Office. ‘NYPD today,’ he said.
Traffic officials say that crime in general has decreased in the Metro, and the number of passengers has been reduced by 70% due to the pandemic, but assaults have risen.
The violence and “mental health crisis” the city is experiencing are wreaking havoc on the transportation system, denounced in January the city’s chief of traffic (NYC Transit), Sarah Feinberg, in a letter sent to Mayor Bill de Blasio.