Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams joined forces Friday to announce that subway crime in New York City dropped 16% since launching a joint initiative between the city and the state.

After several high-profile stories about crime on the subways, the city and state last October launched a campaign to make the subway safer. Under the arrangement, the state pays the overtime for the additional 1,200 NYPD officers patrolling the subway system each day.

“I want people to have that sense. If you need help, it’s there. But also, if you are someone looking to cause harm to somebody, that’s a powerful deterrent when you know there is a police officer either on the train, the platform or the mezzanine,” Hochul said in a press conference in Manhattan.

What You Need To Know

  • After launching a crackdown on subway crime in October, Mayor Eric Adams and Gov. Kathy Hocul say the results show a 16% drop in crime in New York City

  • The initiative was launched before the election when Hochul was locked in a tight race with her Republican opponent, Lee Zeldin, who made crime his top issue

  • According to the NYPD, subway crime is the second lowest it has been since the 90s

There are currently 3.9 million daily subway riders. On average, there are six serious crimes reported per day. That works out to 1.7 crimes per 1 million passengers, which is just slightly higher than 1.5 crimes per million in 2019.

“Do we have a long way to go? You’re darn right,” Adam said. “Because the governor is right, we don’t want six felonies a day. We want zero felonies a day. But are we trending in the right direction? You’re darn right we are.”

Hochul announced the joint venture when she was locked in a closer-than-expected race against Republican Lee Zeldin, whose top issue was crime. Voters in polls also consistently named crime as their top concern.

Adams said that not only are the numbers are currently moving in the right direction but also having more officers visible is the key to making it work.

“It doesn’t matter if you were personally a victim of a crime,” Adams said. “If you enter the system and you see a person that’s dealing with mental health illness yelling and screaming, unkempt, undressed, kicking things over, you see trash, you are sitting in the train and you are reading about someone who was attacked, that begins to play on your psyche.”

The state has committed $62 million to pay for NYPD overtime.

However, they don’t yet have an exact figure on how much has been spent or how much has actually gone out the door.

More details on how long this commitment is anticipated when Hochul unveils her budget next week in Albany.