By New York Post (U.S.) | Created at 2025-04-03 22:33:55 | Updated at 2025-04-04 16:18:54
17 hours ago
Crime is leaving the station.
The Big Apple has finally seen subway crime crater — with the numbers even dipping below pre-pandemic levels — a milestone that NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch credited Thursday to a surge of cops in the system.
Tisch, during a news conference with Mayor Eric Adams unveiling the city’s first-quarter crime statistics, said major offenses overall in the subways have dropped 18% — the second-lowest level in 27 years.
“There have been zero murders in our subways this quarter, the first time that that has happened since 2018,” she said, referring to the period covering the first three months of the year.
“When we announced this plan alongside the mayor back in January, we promised real results, and boy did we get them.”
The transit safety plan that Tisch had unveiled in January came as New Yorkers were overwhelmed with fear after a wave of subway violence, including a woman fatally set ablaze on a Brooklyn train car.
Tisch responded by deploying 200 cops to trains and platforms, as well as flooding hundreds more to transit hubs in order to support a Gov. Kathy Hochul-hatched plan to put two officers on every overnight subway.
Straphangers have noticed a difference, telling The Post on Thursday that they’ve started feeling less afraid to take the trains.
“The subway feels a lot safer,” newborn care specialist Carol Sparks, 69, who rides the subway five days a week from her Flatlands, Brooklyn, home said at the Wall Street station.
“There’s not as much abuse or people disturbing you,” she said. “More police is the answer. When there are more police, the subway is safer.”
Laci Komula, 36, a visitor from Louisville, Kentucky, in town for the week with her 9- and 12-year-old sons, said she has heard horror stories about random shovings and panhandlers harassing tourists.
But so far, she has been pleasantly surprised as she and her sons have caught the subway all around the city, from South Ferry to the Natural History Museum on the Upper West Side.
“We haven’t had any issues whatsoever on the subway or walking around,” she said. “It feels like the fear has really gone down.”
The transit crime statistics, however, do have some significant potential caveats.
Subway ridership is still below pre-pandemic levels, Metropolitan Transportation Authority data shows — meaning comparing crime levels may not be an apples-to-apples correlation.
Ridership in March stood at roughly 111 million, about 23% less than the same month in 2019, data shows.
An overall dip in transit crime also may not be as important as the type of offenses, said Aaron Chalfin, associate professor and graduate chair of criminology at the University of Pennsylvania.
Chalfin studies longer crime trends, and has found felony assaults in the subway system tripled from 2009 to 2023.
NYPD crime data shows 144 felony assaults in the subway system so far this year, roughly even with the same period in 2024.
But felony assaults are up 6.7% compared to two years ago and a whopping 54.8% compared to 2019, the data shows.
“This is basically a continuation of what we have seen (in our research) with robbery declining over the long term and assaults rising,” Chalfin said.
“The decline in overall subway crime is notable and should be understood alongside a long-term increase in assaults underground that predates the pandemic. The context continues to be important.”
And not all straphangers felt safe knowing subway crime is trending down.
“I’m a short, single woman, so I never feel safe in the subway,” said Simone Marshall, 27, a content producer and self-described “occasional influencer.”
“Of course I am happy to hear subway crime is down. I have definitely noticed a lot more cops in the stations, but correlation does not equal causation.”
In a statement, MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber hailed the data as “great news for New Yorkers.”
“As we have been saying all year, the steps that the Governor, City Hall, the NYPD, and the MTA have taken are working and making the system safer,” Lieber said. “Indeed, crime numbers have been driven down to record lows. And we’re not finished. We will always continue to fight to make sure that crime keeps going down and we will continue working with District Attorneys to make sure that anyone committing a crime is held accountable.”
