It’s an in a single day success.
Gov. Kathy Hochul acted like she reinvented the wheel Wednesday as she basked in new crime information hinting that her surge of in a single day NYPD cops on trains made the subways dramatically — and traditionally — safer.
The triumphant governor proudly introduced she’ll lengthen the nightly surge, doubling down on the patrols that started in January.
“It was imagined to be momentary, however I do know New Yorkers inform me they really feel safer once they see officers on board, so we’re going to proceed doing that for the months to come back,” she mentioned at an occasion highlighting a dramatic drop in transit crime.
However many particulars on the extension remained scant, together with what number of cops shall be deployed and for a way lengthy.
Requested for extra specifics, a governor’s workplace spokesperson didn’t cough them up and solely supplied obscure generalities.
“The expanded police presence within the subway system is ongoing and the deployment of officers will proceed to evolve primarily based on crime information and developments,” the spokesperson mentioned.
NYPD officers didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
“We’ll check out what’s working and what isn’t and re-evaluate as wanted,” mentioned Kayla Mamelak, spokeswoman for Mayor Eric Adams.
Hochul’s unique surge announcement in January — made throughout her “State of the State” speech — caught many within the NYPD unexpectedly, because it supplied few particulars over how the stretched-thin NYPD would employees the trouble, and even when it’d start. However with cooperation from Metropolis Corridor and state funds the plan went by.
The governor finally revealed that it’d value $154 million — with the town and state splitting the invoice — to cowl the additional time required to place two cops on all 150 in a single day subway trains.
However Hochul needed to scramble to give you the state’s $77 million share, which was finally permitted by Albany lawmakers in New York’s funds.
The surge’s extension shall be funded, at the very least partly, by $77 million the state already put aside for the surge, Hochul mentioned.
Hochul acknowledged in July that the funds hadn’t been fully drawn down but, and it’s unclear how a lot money the state has left to fund the cops.
Whatever the surge’s messy rollout, it does seem to have helped cut back crime on the subways.
The governor and MTA honcho Janno Lieber took a victory lap on NYPD information exhibiting this July and August had been the most secure for these months within the transit system’s historical past.
Felony assaults are down 21% this 12 months in comparison with the identical level in 2024, transit crime information exhibits.
And main crimes within the transit system have fallen practically 16% in comparison with pre-pandemic 2019, in response to information.
“Mission completed, (is) not popping out of my lips, as a result of I wish to stand right here subsequent summer season and let you know that we are able to beat this 12 months’s file,” Hochul mentioned.
