Many Call for Increased Police Presence on Subways, Mayor Favors Social Workers

By Yehudit Garmaise

   This morning, when Mayor Bill de Blasio was asked what exactly he could be doing to better stop mentally ill people who are on the subway shoving, slashing, and making people who ride the subways feel afraid,” the mayor first denied that the subways were unsafe, and then returned his oft-repeated theme that non-violent mentally ill people need not police to deal with them, but mental health professionals.

   NYPD Police Commissioner Dermot Shea echoed, “When you look at the transit crime numbers, they are down significantly,” which may be true, but ridership also is down to 30% of what it was before the pandemic.

   Commissioner Shea then said that the NYPD is “flattening” the incidence of subway pushing, but he did acknowledge, “One is too many.”

   The mayor spoke about “neighborhood policing” and “precision policing,” but said that mostly, mental health professionals should somehow find and treat mentally ill people before they act out.

   Although Mayor de Blasio acknowledged that the NYPD “does sometimes need to be involved with people who have mental health challenges,” he claimed that, “there are other times, when it isn’t the right approach.” Instead of sending more police officers, the mayor said he wants to “send out mental health experts: social workers and folks with the training, medical personnel to go out and help people in distress.”

      For her part, on Jan. 6, Sarah E. Feinberg, the Interim President of the New York City Transit Authority, was so alarmed by the incidence of subway shoving and other crimes that she wrote the mayor, asking him for an increased police presence.

    Commissioner Shea mentioned that he was working with Chief of Transit, Kathleen O’Reilly, to “free up resources for the transit system” and “get more plainclothes officers into uniform for increased visibility.” 

    New York City Mayoral Candidate Andrew Yang later chimed in to sound a call for the 500 police officers who the MTA approved to patrol subway stations before the pandemic.

(Marc A. Hermann / MTA New York City Transit)