With Gov. Kathy Hochul poised to announce new proposals to increase subway safety, Mayor Eric Adams Tuesday promised new measures to help bring down crime rates, including bag checks.
The NYPD said major crimes in the city’s subway system have dropped since January but remain high compared with last year.
“We know people feel unsafe,” Adams said at a press briefing Tuesday. “We are reinstituting bag checks.”
Adams added the city has tested several metal detectors that could be used in subway stations without slowing people down. Two so far have shown promising results, he said, although they still need to undergo more rigorous testing.
“I feel confident that we’re going to find [a] technology that’s going to identify firearms,” Adams said.
In January, overall crime in the subways rose 45% but decreased in February. After the uptick in transit crime at the start of the new year, Adams responded by adding 1,000 more police officers to patrol subways.
Adams said his goal is for officers to be omnipresent.
“When I’m on the subway system and I’m speaking to riders, they say, ‘Eric, nothing makes us feel safer than seeing that officer at the token booth, walking through the system, walking through the trains,’” he said.
Hochul is expected to announce Wednesday that state personnel will begin helping the NYPD with subway station bag checks and introduce new legislation to improve rider safety.
“We will make people feel more safe, with more police in the subways. Yes, people want to see that. They’ve been asking for it. We’re going to give that,” Hochul said Tuesday.