Friday, February 14, 2025
Even though it has been anything but easy, New York’s mass transit system is once again being used as the primary source of travel at an increasing rate since being effectively shut down at the height of the coronavirus pandemic. Subway ridership has grown 148 percent since January 2021 and continues to climb, with a 5 percent increase in 2024 over 2023. A single-day post-pandemic record of 4.5 million rides was set in mid-December.
With this comes a greater responsibility on every one of us to keep it safe. While prioritizing affordability and support of families, Gov. Kathy Hochul is showing that emphasizing public safety is just as important.
Last March, Hochul instituted her plan to use state resources to enhance New Yorkers’ safety and protection on the subways. While crime in the transit system is already down 10 percent since the plan was announced, the governor refuses to claim, “Mission accomplished.” Instead she has studied the situation closely and collaborated with stakeholders to put elements of her plan into action. In her recent State of the State address, she went even further to protect riders and more than 40,000 members of TWU Local 100 and other transit workers who keep the city moving.
In December, Hochul announced that she was working with the city to increase the law enforcement presence throughout the system with the deployment of 1,000 National Guard members and 250 members of the State and MTA Police as part of Joint Task Force Empire Shield. Their job is to assist the New York City Police Department with bag checks and other forms of violence prevention in heavily trafficked areas. In her speech, she said there would be a temporary surge in patrol levels at 30 subway stations and transit hubs that account for half of all the crime in the system, as well as an increased uniformed presence on overnight trains for the next six months.
Among the other steps being taken:
New protective barriers will be installed to protect people waiting on platforms at more than 100 subway stations.
LED lights will be installed at all stations to enhance visibility, and fare gates and exits will be modernized to inhibit fare evasion.
Installation of security cameras to protect conductor cabins was accelerated, and is now complete, with more than 15,000 cameras in 100 percent of subway cars.
Law enforcement, transit personnel and prosecutors will continue to meet regularly to coordinate information sharing and ensure that dangerous and repeat offenders in the system are held accountable.
An investment of $20 million will increase the number of Subway Co-Response Outreach Teams and Safe Options Support teams, which will address the most severe mental health crises occurring in subway stations.
Ours is not an easy world. Americans, and especially New Yorkers, are still struggling to recover from the damaging effects of the pandemic. In such difficult times, it is meaningful to consider some of the basic principles of our democracy.
Running for president in 1959, John F. Kennedy spoke on the challenge of crime before the District Attorneys’ Convention in Milwaukee, and said, “One hundred and fifty years ago, a member of the British Parliament described that nation’s inhabitants as ‘the most lawless, corrupt, and criminally disposed race in the whole of the civilized world.’ Organized crime had spread over the country. Dealing in stolen goods was one of London’s most prominent sources of income. Organized mobs periodically looted large sections of British cities. And corruption had spread to officials in every branch of government, at the highest and lowest levels.
“But the British overcame this trend to build a tradition of honesty, integrity, and scrupulous administration of criminal justice,” Kennedy continued. “And we in this country can reverse our ominous trends as well. It will require an extraordinary effort of the part of federal and local officials. It will require a real revitalization of public opinion. It will require the personal dedication for a better country on the part of each and every one of us.
“But it can be done,” the future president concluded. “In the words of Woodrow Wilson, ‘This is the high enterprise of the new day: to lift everything that concerns our life as a nation to the light that shines from the hearth fire of every man’s conscience.’”
Kennedy’s words are as true today as they were 66 years ago. Working with Governor Hochul, we will best honor the American spirit by working together to strengthen public safety.
Charles Lavine represents the 13th Assembly District.
