MTA, Unions, Business Leaders Call For More Subway Cops

NEW YORK CITY — A growing chorus of MTA officials, union leaders and a prominent business group are calling on Mayor Bill de Blasio to deploy more cops to the subway.

Two of MTA's leaders — Sarah Feinberg, its interim transit president, and CEO Patrick Foye — went on a Monday morning media blitz in solidarity with a pointed letter from union leaders to de Blasio.

They all argue more police need to be stationed in the subway amid a spate of high-profile crimes and attacks in the system.

"Look, I think this is a great effort by these unions, and they're really saying, look, we represent millions of workers, millions of New Yorkers, who are either riding buses and subways, or they want to come back and ride buses and subways, and we want to make sure that they're safe," Feinberg said on Fox 5's Good Day New York.

"What matters is the way our customers feel," Feinberg continued. "We just came out of the field with a survey where we talked with 33,000 of our current customers and our lapsed customers, those who want to come back, and 87 percent of them said this is the most important thing to them. They're worried about crime and harassment. So they've sent us a very clear message. We know how to get them back."

The letter was signed by leaders of New York AFL-CIO, NYC Central Labor Council, District Council 37 and the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, the New York Post first reported.

NYPD officers in the subways proved to be a controversial issue pre-pandemic. Many New Yorkers and advocates feared cops would disproportionately enforce minor violations against people of color and the homeless.

But as ridership cratered amid the coronavirus pandemic, other New Yorkers have said they're scared to return to mass transit. High-profile incidents of potential hate crimes, slashings, stabbings and other assaults only stoked the fears, despite the fact major crimes are actually down 59 percent in the subways.

MTA recently released a survey outlining riders' fears — which NYPD Chief of Transit Kathleen O’Reilly said amounted to "fearmongering," Politico reported.

"It’s a disservice to New Yorkers to invent a narrative that crime is soaring in the subways when it’s simply not the case," O’Reilly said.

The union leaders' letter, however, said the city employees, transit workers, grocery store clerks, among others, they represent simply don't feel safe.

Their letter was echoed by Kathryn Wylde, president and CEO of the Partnership for New York City, a major business group.

“The city’s business community and major employers agree with the TWU and other labor organizations that the mayor should increase police presence and mental health outreach in the transit system,” Wylde said in a statement. “Harassment and intimidation on transit and in major transit hubs is a regular complaint of employees and has discouraged a return to the workplace. Increasing the sense of personal safety on transit is essential to the city’s recovery.”