Slow Rollout of Plan for Two Cops on Subway Trains at Night
Mayor Eric Adams said the rollout began last week but acknowledged that, at the start, only 100 NYPD officers of the planned 300 were deployed.
| 27 Jan 2025 | 08:31
Chief of Transit Joseph Gulotta appears at a City Hall press conference with Mayor Adams to detail NYPD plans for two policemen on every subway train for the next six months between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. (
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Governor Kathy Hochul in her State of the State address said she was allocating $77 million in State funds to pay for police overtime to put two NYPD officers on every subway train at night for the next six months. She said she’d request an additional six-month extension when the first flight expires in July, (
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The much-ballyhooed plan to put two cops on each subway train at night started last week, but the rollout was slow with only four subway lines—the A, G, L and J lines—covered in the first week.
There were only 100 cops on duty on Day 1 on Jan. 20. That’s one third of the 300 who have been budgeted for the patrols, outlined by Gov. Kathy Hochul in her State of the State address.
“We have had horrific, unusual, high-profile crimes that have occurred,” Hochul acknowleged and said the $77 million she is allocating is to pay for overtime for 300 more NYPD officers on the subways.
“We’re not doing anything with the 2,500 police officers who are already there patrolling the system,” she said. “This is to add on top of that. This is not diverting existing law enforcement. I want to assure everybody of that.”
She said she would propose extending an additional six months’ overtime when the initial funds run out in July.
Also in the address, she said she budgeted for the MTA to install new protective barriers on platforms on more than 100 stations, add new LED lighting to increase visibility on platforms, and modernize fare gates to try to eliminate the nearly $300 million that the subway system loses each year to turnstile jumpers. (Coupled with fare beaters on city buses, the total in lost fare revenue for the MTA is over $700 million.)
Mayor Eric Adams was joined by the Chief of the NYPD’s Transit department, Joseph Gulotta, at a press conference on Jan. 21. “Thanks to our partnership with the governor, there will be two uniformed officers assigned to each train between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m.,” Adams said. “We’re going to do a phased approach to rollout until we get to the roll of 300,” he said, acknowledging that the full contingent is not yet being deployed underground.
“Right now, we have 100 officers assigned to that, and it’s going to be growing and rolling out as we go through it,” said Transit Bureau Chief Gulotta.
The average subway train is nine cars long, and the two patrol officers will be in one car at a time.
Gulotta gave a rundown on how the police will move from car to car each time a train pulls into a station.
“We’re going to make contact with the conductor and the motorman on these trains, and the goal . . . is they’re going to announce that a police officer is on that train,” Gulotta said. “So if you get on that train and you may not see that police officer in the car, the MTA is going to make an announcement telling you, yes, there is a police officer on this train, and that’ll alert people.”
The NYPD end-of-year crime statistics showed that reported subway crime incidents actually dropped five percent in 2024 compared with a year earlier. But there have been a number of jarring incidents on the subways over the past year, including most recently the homeless woman who was set afire and died on an F train in Queens.
And in the most recent incident, a 23 year-old woman was pushed into the side of an oncoming subway car by a homeless person, causing her to bang her head and fall back on the platform.
A homeless man is accused of pushing a 23-year-old woman into a moving train at a Washington Heights subway station Monday morning, police said.
The attack happened around 9.m. on Jan. 27 as victim was on the northbound A train platform at the 175th Street station, police said. As the train pulled into the station, the man pushed her into the train, causing her to fall to the ground on the platform, suffering bruising to her body and face. Witnesses took photos of the suspect and police arrested Markeese Brazelis, 26, at the 181st St. station.
On Jan. 25, another man arrested and charged with attempted for a random subway shoving incident was arraigned. Police arrested 23-year-old Kamel Hawkins for allegedly pushing a 45 year old man into the path of a 1 train at the W. 18th station in Chelsea on Jan. 22 He was charged with attempted murder and assault and ordered held without bail.
Hochul is aware that the perception of crime in the subways is on the minds of many New Yorkers.
“Keeping New Yorkers safe is my top priority—and that means making sure our subways feel safe and are safe for every single rider and worker,” Hochul said. “No one should be in fear that they’ll be a victim of crime as they commute to work, go to school or enjoy a night out—that is why we’re partnering with law enforcement, improving our infrastructure and ensuring that New Yorkers struggling with mental illness get the support they need.”