As the MTA prepares to unleash 500 new police officers on the city's subway system, the transit authority wants to make clear that those cops won't be weighed down by unnecessary burdens, like citywide decriminalization priorities or a statistical justification for their presence.
Referencing a NY Post story—'Subway crime on the rise; cops blame Blas'—MTA Chairman Pat Foye emailed reporters on Monday about the "painful reality" of growing subway crime, which he called "the canary in the coal mine for New York City crime."
If so, the canary would seem to have reassuring news for New Yorkers. Tucked in toward the end of the Post's foaming about the return of Mad Max-style commutes is the admission that overall subway crime is actually down 1.5 percent this year, despite a statistically slight uptick in murders and rapes systemwide so far this year (two homicides compared to one in the same time period in 2018, two rapes compared to zero in the first seven months of last year). According to the NYPD, felonies have decreased within the system for the sixth straight year, led by a 6.3 percent drop in grand larcenies since 2018.
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Still, those figures don't stop Foye from seizing on the uptick in quality-of-life complaints, as well as the Post's findings that an unnamed cop feels "handcuffed" by the city's efforts to de-emphasize certain low-level offenses. According to the MTA boss, "the ‘handcuffs’ have to be removed and they need to be fully empowered to address those quality-of-life issues that matter to New Yorkers."
It's unclear what actual changes Foye is calling for, and a spokesperson for the agency did not provide immediate clarification, beyond pointing us to the Post article. A follow-up statement attributed to the chairman stated that he was not pushing for fare evasion to be further criminalized, but wanted more officers "to act as a deterrent to address quality-of-life offenses.”
"We’re not going to attempt to parse the meaning of what is written by the NY Post’s reporters," an MTA spokesperson replied, when pressed again about the "handcuffs" comment.
In recent years, the NYPD has arrested fewer people for fare evasion, while issuing far more non-criminal summonses. Data released by the NYPD shows that 90 percent of fare evasion arrestees last year were people of color. Citing a growing number of unpaid fares, Governor Andrew Cuomo has recently called for a crackdown on turnstile jumpers, as well as homeless New Yorkers using the subway system.
During the authority's monthly board meeting on Monday, which Foye did not attend, MTA board member David Jones said he was "very concerned" that poor New Yorkers would be swept up in the new deployment of cops. Referencing the racial disparities in fare evasion summonses, he added, "I don't have a sense we've come to grips with that."
Meanwhile, the MTA's newest board member, Sarah Feinberg, seemed to acknowledge that those pushing a certain narrative about subway crime might be motivated by other interests—say, blaming their own financial woes on fare evaders, or placating a governor fond of flashy displays of strength, or selling newspapers.
"You can say that crime is increasing in this system, you can say that crime is decreasing in this system," said Feinberg. "You can actually hold either view, because the numbers will tell you either story that you want."
Additional reporting by Stephen Nessen
