More Cops Coming To NYC Subways, Mayor And Gov Say

NEW YORK CITY — Mayor Eric Adams has one word to describe the NYPD's mission on the city's subways going forward: "omnipresence."

Cops will be riding trains, walking platforms, posting at entrances and conducting hundreds of "visual inspections" under a new subway safety plan unveiled Thursday by Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul.

Adams and Hochul said the plan is designed to ease perceptions among New Yorkers that subways are unsafe.

"The omnipresence is the key," Adams said. "People feel as though the system is not safe because they don't see their officers."

But the beefed-up police presence doesn't necessarily mean wide NYPD crackdowns, at least according to Adams and Hochul.

The cops will be coupled with new "safe option support teams" who will reach out to homeless people within the subway system, Hochul said.

Teams of eight to 10 trained, state-funded professionals will scour the subways to help homeless people in need, she said.

"This truly is a humanitarian crisis," she said. "It's hard for people to walk past someone in need of help on our city's sidewalks, whether they're coming to a subway station, a train station or just walking to work. And roughly 3,000 to 4,000 people, our fellow citizens, are homeless on the streets. These are the New Yorkers for whom the system has failed. And failure is not an option for us in government."

Adams said the new homeless outreach will help the NYPD. He said they'll not engage unless there's criminal activity that needs immediate attention.

Instead, officers will refer homeless people they spot to the new teams, he said.

“This new plan also frees up our police officers to focus on crime and not be the street sweepers of sweeping men and women who are homeless off our system,” he said.

"We need to be clear here: we will not allow our police officers to have unnecessary engagement with homeless individuals, and those petty issues that will cause negative encounters with our police officers and the riders of the public,” he said.

Adding police to subways has a fraught history in New York City. Just weeks before the coronavirus struck, many New Yorkers engaged in a massive protest over increased police where they vandalized MTA property, held emergency doors open and didn't pay fare.