New York State deploys soldiers in the subway after a series of crimes

The number of serious crimes in New York’s transportation system jumped nearly 50% in January compared to the same month in 2023.

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Members of the National Guard patrol the subway on March 6, 2024, in New York (United States).  (ADAM GRAY / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)

A thousand soldiers and police officers (750 National Guard soldiers and 250 police officers) will be deployed in the New York subway to fight crime, the state’s Democratic governor, Kathy Hochul, announced on Wednesday March 6.

This announcement comes after a shooting in mid-February at a station in the Bronx, in which one person died and five others were injured. At the end of February, a subway conductor was also stabbed in a Brooklyn station. The number of serious crimes in the transport network jumped by almost 50% in January compared to the same month in 2023.

Additional surveillance cameras

“These heinous and brazen attacks on our subway system will not be tolerated,” declared the governor. This deployment of National Guard soldiers will notably aim to help the New York police strengthen checks of passengers’ bags in the busiest stations.

The mayor of New York, Democrat Eric Adams, a former police captain elected in 2021 on the promise of bringing security to the city after the Covid pandemic, also announced a strengthening of these controls.

Kathy Hochul promised the deployment of additional surveillance cameras and announced the project to more easily prohibit access to the metro to people convicted of assaulting a transport employee.


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