NYPD adds more than 600 officers to city subway after crime spree.
After registering a series of crimes in the subway of New York the weekend, the Police Department of the city announced that it will reinforce the surveillance with hundreds of additional agents.
As detailed by The New York Post, this figure includes 331 agents of the Traffic Office and 313 of the Patrol Office, as stated by the Chief of Traffic of the New York Police Department, Kathleen O’Reilly, at a morning press conference. “The agents who come from the patrol will be dedicated to 68 stations”, He said.
“Although we cannot prevent all crimes in the system, [éste] continues to be one of the safest major transit systems in the world ”, O’Reilly added, according to the outlet. “When a crime occurs, our officers act quickly to make immediate arrests”.
Police announced his presence at train R bound for Brooklyn on Tuesday, details the ABC News York portal. As detailed by the department, the agents will travel more frequently on the trains.
The initiative is part of an increase in 644 officers now heading to the transit system following the wave of violence that culminated in several stabbings at opposite ends of the line A this weekend, where a homeless man stabbed and killed two people according to the outlet.
In this regard, the police indicated that they used surveillance video and the statement of a victim to locate Rigoberto López, 21, a homeless man with a history of mental illness. The MTA has said that the real crisis has to do with the number of mentally ill people freely roaming the subway.
Recent violent incidents also include a stabbing that occurred on February 3 in the East Village, where Noel Quintana received a laceration to his face on the L.
Another man was stabbed on the platform of the 1 train in Christopher Street last week, and in January, images from police body cameras showed someone trying to push a woman in front of a moving train.
According to the Daily News, the bloody attacks, all targeting homeless New Yorkers, were the latest in a wave of high-level crimes that, according to traffic officers, must be faced with the full force of the largest police department in the country.
MTA calls for 1,000 more police officers in the subway
MTA authorities called on NYPD to flood the subway with 1,000 additional police officers. Both the president, Pat Foye, and the interim president of Transit, Sarah Feinberg, recently indicated that the number of agents previously anticipated, is not sufficient, indicó The Daily News.
Both sent a letter to Mayor de Blasio on Sunday in which they ask keep the 500 and send 1,000 more policemen to patrol the city’s subway and bus system, which would bring the total number of agents to 1,500.
“The fact is that we all see a worrying trend above and below the ground, which as you know started before the pandemic, and has now been exacerbated by the acute mental health crisis we are facing.”
While the police commissioner, Dermot Shea indicated in an interview with PIX 11, which kept the number previously stipulated.
“We think that is the appropriate number at this time. Of course, we will continue to evaluate as we progress. Is that the balance… .The city is not the subway system. It’s the whole city and the resources and the crime scene. “
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