After another subway shooting, New York wrestles with question of safety

NEW YORK – The subway crime that Mr Jimmy Sumampow had been hearing about in recent years – as well as his own experience – had already led him to make plans to leave New York City. Then, on March 16, he saw a video online of the shooting on an A train this past week.

“I’m scared,” said Mr Sumampow, 46, after seeing the video. He lives in Elmhurst, Queens, but plans to board an Amtrak train on March 18 for Florida, where he has a new job and an apartment lined up. “I feel I should move out for a while and see if New York takes action and gets better,” he said.

For Ms Elise Anderson, however,

the shooting

did not raise her level of concern.

“I wouldn’t say I’m any more scared,” Ms Anderson, a 27-year-old Brooklyn resident, said as she waited at the Port Authority Bus Terminal subway station on March 15 for a downtown A train. “I think we’re in one of the safest cities in the world.”

In interviews across the city this past week, New Yorkers wrestled with a question that cut to the core of the city’s identity: Is the subway system safe?

Subway crime data in recent years shows a muddled picture, and just as they have in surveys of riders and polls of residents, New Yorkers’ opinions diverge.

Limits to law enforcement’s ability

But barely more than a week after Governor Kathy Hochul sent the National Guard and state police into the subway to increase security and help ease New Yorkers’ fears, the shooting seemed to underscore the limits to law enforcement’s ability to improve safety underground.

The episode took place at the Hoyt-Schermerhorn station, where the police department maintains an outpost, Transit District 30, that is staffed by officers regularly.

Moments before the shooting, two additional officers entered the station to inspect the platforms and train cars, said Mr Kaz Daughtry, the police department’s deputy commissioner of operations, at a news conference on March 15.

If protections such as those, plus the 1,000 National Guard soldiers and other law enforcement personnel promised by Ms Hochul, are not enough to prevent one of the subway’s most gruesome confrontations in recent memory, what is?

“They could send the army into the subway – I think it’s still going to get worse,” Mr Antonio Balaguacha, 56, said on March 15 as he waited on a subway platform in Sunnyside, Queens, for a Manhattan-bound 7 train.

Efforts by city and state officials in recent days to improve safety have drawn a wide range of opinions from New Yorkers who rely on the subway. Some riders felt comforted by the presence of the Guard soldiers.

“I haven’t seen the National Guard yet, but I don’t think I would feel safer in their presence,” Mr Patrick Bovie, 27, said on March 15 as he waited for a G train in Brooklyn.

“I feel better seeing them here,” Ms Anna Puello, a 47-year-old resident of Upper Manhattan, said.

Statistically remote but perceptions matter

Recent surveys by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) show that a significant percentage of riders, though not a majority, do not feel safe on the subway, with many citing erratic behaviour by other passengers as being among their top concerns.

The data on subway crime paints a more nuanced picture. Annual figures from recent years show that major crime on the subway decreased slightly in 2023 compared with the year before, even as ridership rose.

Although the total number of major crimes was similar in 2023 to the years before the pandemic, the system has still regained only about 70 per cent of its average daily ridership, suggesting the per-ride crime rate is higher today than it once was.

And some categories of crime that cause New Yorkers particular alarm, such as felony assault, have risen far above pre-pandemic levels.

In 2024, overall crime in the subway is up 13.2 per cent until March 10, compared with the same period in 2023, but down 6.6 per cent from the same period in 2022.

Officials have stressed that the chances of any rider becoming the victim of a crime are statistically remote: The 570 felony assaults recorded in 2023 – the highest number in decades – came over the course of more than one billion rides.

But in a recent television interview, Ms Hochul explained that data does little to assuage people’s fears.

“I can show you all the statistics in the world and say, ‘You should feel safe because the numbers are better’, but you’re the mom on the subway with your baby in a stroller,” she said, adding that it was the public’s perception of subway crime, not statistics, that informed her decision to deploy the National Guard.

Some riders, however, fear the surge in officers and troops will lead to more racial discrimination; some believe the discrimination has already started.

Ms Joy Richardson, a photo producer at HBO, stood beside a Penn Station subway entrance on March 13 as police officers searched her bag.

“As soon as I heard about this, I knew I was going to be stopped,” said Ms Richardson, 39, who lives in Brooklyn. “I knew because I have a big bag and I’m black.”

Speaking at a news conference on March 15, Mr Jeffrey Maddrey, the police department’s chief of department, said there was a need to enforce “quality of life” laws such as fare evasion, which he noted could lead to more serious crimes. The man who started the fight that led to his own shooting on March 14 had entered the subway without paying a fare, he added.

In February, Mayor Eric Adams ordered 1,000 additional police officers to patrol stations and trains. Ms Hochul followed up last week by stationing 750 Guard troops at various stations, augmented by 250 personnel from the state police and the MTA. A spokesperson for Ms Hochul did not respond to requests for comment.

“The presence of a uniform makes people feel better, and if the National Guards or the state police want to add to that presence, I applaud that,” Mr Adams said during a news conference on March 12.

A few demonstrators responded to Ms Hochul’s mobilisation with a small protest in Union Square late on March 15. The demonstrators were outnumbered by police officers, journalists and curious passers-by, some of whom agreed with the organisers.

“I don’t think the police keep things safe,” said Ms Tiffany Bailey, 21, a dog walker who lives in Brooklyn. “I think they just instil a sense of fear in us.”

Others said the protesters did not understand the fears of riding the subway. Ms Jesenia Ramirez, a 44-year-old entrepreneur, prefers the hassle of buses, and the expense of taxis or rental cars, to the anxiety she feels when she takes the train.

Part of her concern, she explained, is that because the subway system is so sprawling, there is no way for police officers or Guard members to patrol it all.

“They cannot be in every train car or in every train,” said Ms Ramirez, who lives in Manhattan.

As Mr Sumampow rode the 7 train to Times Square on the morning of March 15, he said he had noticed the increased police presence at some stations, but it did not change his plans to leave the city.

About a month ago, he said, three men tried to steal his wallet as he entered a subway station near his home. He escaped because he hit one of the robbers with his elbow, he said, and a nearby pedestrian yelled for police.

Now, he removes all the cash from his wallet every morning before he leaves home. And he has bought a one-way train ticket to Florida.

“I’m going to escape for a while,” he said. “But I’ll keep my apartment here. If New York gets safer, then I’ll come back.” NYTIMES