New York Subway users will see in the coming days a deployment of 750 National Guardsmen, thousands of state police and members of the New York City Police Department (NYPD) as part of the emergency effort announced this Wednesday by the governor Kathy Hochul, to address the escalation of attacks and criminal acts recorded in the transportation system in the last six weeks.
The state leader also said she is proposing legislation that would empower judges to prohibit criminals, who have been prosecuted for committing criminal acts in the transportation system, from boarding trains or buses in the Big Apple.
This proposal is compared to laws that prohibit drivers convicted of driving under the influence of alcohol from getting behind the wheel.
“Basically, if you attack someone on the subway, you will no longer be able to use the service. And a judge would have the power to make sure that for at least three years, he must stay away from this system completely,” Hochul announced.
There is currently a law in place aimed at protecting Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) personnel, which has been questioned for having many loopholes. In fact, it has only been implemented three times, since it was first enacted in 2020.
Tourniquet to repeat offenders
The plan that the state government will implement includes increasing personnel to help with baggage controls at station entrances. Coordination between prosecutors and law enforcement will also be increased to prosecute crimes committed against passengers, reinforcing action against criminals who are caught committing crimes several times.
Last year, the governor included in the budget plan some technical modifications to punish repeat offenders of criminal acts more severely, which meant a review of some points of the controversial reform of the bail law.
“We gave the judges more discretion. It has come to my attention that there are still some judges who do not apply the new standards. So, we are talking with the Office of Court Administration to expand the information on the update of this very sensitive issue for public safety,” said the president.
The substance of the new legislation, promoted by Hochul, will try to impose that if a judge determines that someone represents a danger to New Yorkers, is detained, released and commits another crime again, mechanisms will be created so that they cannot return to any station Of transport.
“It is the same principle as when someone’s driver’s license is revoked for the reckless conduct of driving under the influence of alcohol. Guess what? You will not travel on our roads. You are not capable of driving a vehicle. It’s the same principle here. And I hope the judges use that discretion,” she reinforced.
In this sense, police officers told El Diario that as long as a person is not punished for constantly repeating crimes, even if they are minor, the feeling of security at the Subway will not change.
“Sometimes they arrest someone. And a few days later you see him at the same station, trying to steal. They know there will be no consequences. “They make fun of the officers,” commented the uniformed man.
The other angle in the security strategy in the system will be the deployment of more professional outreach teams to support the homeless and mentally ill, who are, according to official figures, directly responsible for the majority of attacks in wagons and platforms.
These announcements are made known the day after the municipal government announced the deployment of 1,000 NYPD officers and random searches of passengers’ bags and backpacks.
Until now it is unknown which stations would have greater security. It emerged that 94 bag inspection teams will be deployed at 136 stations each week.
For his part, Thomas Taffe, chief of operations of the MTA Police Department, indicated that “reducing the fear of crime is as important as reducing crime itself. Our focus is to respond to the problems that most affect travelers, the feeling of disorder, that fear of crime.”
So far this year, crime in the subway continues to increase by 13% compared to 2023, and attacks on the transportation system experienced an increase of 11%. Police are investigating 86 assaults, up from 77 last year. The worst thing has been the three homicides confirmed in the first two months of the year, which marks a worrying trend, especially compared to 2023, when there were none in this same period of time.
One man…54 arrests
The governor’s announcement comes after a few weeks that the NYPD exposed the case of Reynaldo Quiñones, a 32-year-old man, who has made 54 arrests in New York City, most of them at the Subway.
Quiñones has been defined by the Uniformed Police as “a threat to the Metro and to society” who has benefited from the penal reform in force since 2020″, however he is currently free.
The second week of September he was captured for the 55th time, when plainclothes police allegedly saw him cut a 42-year-old man’s jacket pocket and steal his phone and wallet on a Line 4 train.
The data:
- 1,000 members of the New York State Police, MTA Police and National Guard will conduct bag checks, in addition to what the City is doing