23.10.2022
After a series of homicides and assaults, the largest transportation system in the United States will also have more surveillance cameras in stations and cars.
New York will increase the presence of police from the city and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority as well as surveillance cameras in the cars of the subway system, where there have been nine homicides this year, Governor Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams announced.
This effort will mean that 1,200 overtime shifts will be added each day and that police officers will be at more than 300 subway stations during rush hour, including the busiest Grand Central, Penn Station or Sutphin-Archer, frequented by commuters. or are coming from John F. Kennedy International Airport.
The initiative to deal with incidents of violence on the subway, which also includes a significant investment of the state’s public emergency funds, will also require train drivers to announce passengers when they enter a station where police are present.
In a joint press conference in the popular Grand Central station, they also announced that they will increase help in psychiatric centers to care for the homeless people who live on the streets and in the city’s subway, some of whom have assaulted and killed to train users.
New York State will support care for people who are mentally challenged or homeless who wander or stay overnight at the stations.
Adams and Hochul also pledged to explore strengthening laws that provide assistance to those with serious mental illness.
safer trains
“This effort will help with two things New Yorkers desperately want: adding hundreds of officers who will be strategically deployed on our trains and helping those with serious mental illness,” said Adams, who since taking office last January has been dealing with violence by guns and on the subway, the largest transportation system in the country.
“The bottom line is that commuters will see more officers on the system, as will those thinking about breaking the law. On behalf of all New Yorkers, we are grateful for this state investment that will make our subways safer.” he claimed.
Hochul stressed for his part that “everything is necessary” will be done to make the subways safer for passengers and that this initiative announced today will also help the homeless to get the support they need.
jc (efe, ap)
