500 New Cops Not Enough To Keep Subways Safe, Brooklyn BP Says

PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN — Days after the MTA approved a controversial plan to bring 500 more cops into the city's subway system, Brooklyn's borough president contended even more needs to be done to keep straphangers and transit workers safe.

Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams applauded the addition of the new officers outside Park Slope's Seventh Avenue station on Monday, but said other safety measures like cameras, bystander training and body cameras are still needed to stop violent incidents like a shooting that injured a man at the Brooklyn stop on Saturday.

The press conference comes after a weekend where a 29-year-old was shot in the leg inside the Seventh Avenue station and another man had his finger bitten off in a fight at a station in Manhattan.

The incidents are two of the "countless others" that Adams said prove more needs to be done to keep subways safe.

"I do not know this rosy picture of our transit system that many people want to give the appearance [of]," Adams, who was once a transit cop himself, said. "I cannot tel you the number of times I've had to stop incidents, stop fights and stop disputes...these are real issues that happen every day."

Adams specifically announced that his office and the North Flatbush Avenue Business Improvement District will be adding surveillance cameras to businesses around the Seventh Avenue station, found at the north end of Park Slope near Flatbush Avenue.

The cameras, part of an initiative they dubbed "Operation Safe Shopper," will be pointed toward the subway entrances to catch those who commit crimes like Saturday's shooting. Police have not yet found the person or people who shot the 29-year-old man in the leg around 4 a.m. Saturday, an NYPD spokesperson said Monday.

"If we had that type of technology present...we would have had video footage [of the shooters]," Adams said. "Police will tell you that one of the number one tools we can use to deal with crime is having video surveillance and that is what we are going to put in place."

Aside from the Park Slope incident, the borough president also pointed to NYPD data that shows there is a 50 percent increase in subway hate crimes, an 11.5 percent increase in subway robbery, and the Transit Worker Union's reported 39 percent increase in assaults against MTA staff.

MTA officials and Gov. Andrew Cuomo have said those numbers are the reason 500 additional officers are needed, despite critics who fear the new cops will target commuters of color and point to video of violent arrests of teens, an accused fare evader and churros vendors as evidence.

Adams said Monday that he disagrees with those who call the 500 new cops "over-policing." As long as the officers are respectful and "interact well" with the community, they should be welcomed by New Yorkers, he said.

"I have never witnessed a passenger watch a police officer walk through the train and say, 'What are you doing here?" he said. "I see them saying, 'I'm happy to see you here.'"