NEW YORK - With subway ridership stuck at about 60 per cent of pre-pandemic levels, Governor Kathy Hochul said Tuesday that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority would install two security cameras on every car to lure back people frightened of crime and bolster a system whose finances were teetering.
Ms Hochul said the cameras would bring scrutiny to places that have been the scene of random attacks, muggings and the focus of concerns about rising numbers of homeless people.
"You think Big Brother is watching you on the subway?" Ms Hochul said at a news conference. "You're absolutely right. That is our intent: to get the message out that we're going to be having surveillance of activity on the subway trains, and that's going to give people great ease of mind."
For Ms Hochul, who is running for her first full term as governor in November, and Mayor Eric Adams, who won office promising a safer city, reviving the subway system - and coaxing back frightened riders - is an urgent issue.
Expanding on a pilot programme that began this summer, the transit authority would spend US$5.5 million (S$7.75 million) of state and federal funds to equip each of the more than 6,400 cars by 2025, Ms Hochul said.
The new cameras, which will monitor entire cars, cannot be monitored live, Ms Hochul said, but they will provide investigators with video footage after a crime.
But even as Ms Hochul and Mr Adams have urged New Yorkers to head for their workplaces again, continuous violence on the subway has complicated their message.
Five months ago, a gunman opened fire on an N train in Brooklyn, striking 10 people as more than a dozen others were injured. Six weeks later, a man fatally shot a passenger at random aboard a Q train.
And lower-profile offences are an increasingly prevalent part of commuters' daily experience.
The number of crimes reported in the subway system is roughly the same through July of this year as it was in 2019, according to police statistics. But because ridership is at about 60 per cent of pre-pandemic levels, the per capita crime rate is up.
Only a fraction of reported crimes have resulted in arrests. Through July of this year, the Police Department counted about 2,800 complaints and about 600 arrests. NYTIMES
