NYC increasing police presence in transit system: ‘People don’t feel safe in our subways’

(NEW YORK) — Crime in New York City’s transit system dropped in 2024 for the second year in a row, the head of the New York City Police Department said Monday, while acknowledging that people still do not feel safe after several shocking subway incidents that included the death of a woman who was set on fire.

NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said she has ordered more officers to patrol the subway trains and platforms following the “terrifying acts of random violence.”

Overall, major crime — including incidents of murder, felony assault, robbery and burglary — decreased 5.4% last year in the transit system compared to 2023 and is 12.7% below pre-pandemic crime levels, according to NYPD data.

Compared to the previous year, 2024 saw drops in robberies (down 16.3%) and burglaries (down 23.5%) in the transit system, according to NYPD data. However, murders on the subway doubled, with 10 in 2024 compared to five in 2023, and shootings and petit larceny also increased year-over-year, according to the data.

Tisch called the overall transit crime drop “significant” but more needs to be done to address the perception of safety in the subway system after the “terrifying acts of random violence we have seen recently.”

“I want to be very clear, the subways will always be a bellwether for the perception of public safety in New York City. Declining crime numbers are significant, but we still must do more, because people don’t feel safe in our subways,” Tisch said during a press briefing on Monday.

The sentiment was echoed by New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

“It is clear, perception always overrides reality, and when you look at some of the horrific incidents that the commissioner talked about in these last few days, the average New Yorker would believe that they’re living in a city that is out of control. That is not the reality,” Adams said. “We know that we are doing a good job in fighting crime, as the numbers will show, but we must deal with the perception that many New Yorkers feel.”

One such horrifying incident included the killing of a 57-year-old woman who was set on fire last month on a subway train in Brooklyn. The victim, Debrina Kawam, was sleeping when she was set ablaze, police said. An undocumented Guatemalan citizen has been charged with first-degree murder.

In another, a man was critically injured last week after an assailant pushed him onto the subway tracks in front of train in Manhattan in a random attack, police said. The suspect in that case was charged with attempted murder.

“Nothing is more horrific than watching a person burned to death on our subway system. We know how individuals feel when they’re shoved to the tracks for no reason at all. We know how it impacts us,” Adams said Monday.

The latest crime data was announced a day after New York City’s congestion pricing plan went into effect. Under the new toll system, the first such program of its kind in the country, drivers will pay $9 to access the center of Manhattan during peak hours as part of an effort to ease congestion and raise funds for the city’s transit system.

Among measures to address subway safety, Tisch said she has directed to move more than 200 officers onto the trains to do “specialty train patrols,” effective this week.

“I have further directed that we deploy more officers onto subway platforms in the 50 highest crime stations in the city,” she added. “It’s all part of the strategy to refocus our subway efforts to places where the crime is occurring.”

She said more initiatives are in the works.

“This month, we will roll out substantial additional improvements to our transit deployments to be even more responsive to the terrifying acts of random violence we have seen recently,” she said. “I will have more to say about that soon.”

Adams also said addressing “severe mental health” issues will be a focus of the governor’s budget to address public transit safety.

“We know we have to tackle that perception, and it starts with dealing with the real issue — mental health,” he said.

Last week, Gov. Kathy Hochul said she plans to launch a $1 billion plan to address mental health care and supportive housing.

“The recent surge in violent crimes in our public transit system cannot continue — and we need to tackle this crisis head-on,” Hochul said in a statement. “Many of these horrific incidents have involved people with serious untreated mental illness, the result of a failure to get treatment to people who are living on the streets and are disconnected from our mental health care system. We have a duty to protect the public from random acts of violence, and the only fair and compassionate thing to do is to get our fellow New Yorkers the help they need.”

The drop in transit crime coincides with an overall 2.9% drop in crime in 2024, including murders and shootings, Tisch said.

The police commissioner attributed increases in felony assaults to repeat offenders. She called it “disheartening” for police officers to be arresting the same people over and over again due to an increase in the number of decline-to-prosecute cases and a decrease in the number of defendants for whom bail is set.