Safir: We really have to do something about taking back New York City
Former NYPD commissioner Howard Safir calls for a return to broken windows and stop-and-frisk policing on 'Your World.'
New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Tuesday that he's "disappointed in the deployment of transit police personnel" and urged residents to take photos of officers if they're on their phones while working in the subway system.
"We are going to start taking very aggressive actions to make sure police are patrolling our subway system and not patrolling their iPhone," Adams said Tuesday at a briefing about his budget proposal for next year.
"If you see it, send me a picture. Let me know, because I'll go to that district the next day and see exactly what's happening. Send me a shot."
Mayor Eric Adams speaks at a news conference inside a subway station after a woman was pushed to her death in front of a subway train at the Times Square station, Saturday, Jan. 15, 2022, in New York. (NYPD News via AP)
Transit crime has jumped 65.3% this year in NYC, with a string of high-profile incidents on subways around the city.
A shooter popped a smoke cannister and opened fire on a Manhattan-bound N train earlier this month and wounded 10 people.
Michelle Alyssa Go, a 40-year-old woman, was shoved to her death at the Times Square subway station in January.
Police officers patrol a subway station in New York, Tuesday, April 12, 2022. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Staff and officers have also been the targets of crime in the subways, with 20 MTA employees assaulted and 25 officers assaulted while working the transit system so far this year.
Adams, who promised to crack down on crime during his campaign last year, said that the MTA will also be cracking down on fare evasion.
"We're going to identify those locations where you have rampant fare evasion. And even if the choice is not to prosecute, we're going to arrest," Adams said Tuesday. "Our job is to arrest when a crime is carried out."
A police officer stands watch at the entrance of 36th Street Station after multiple people were shot on a subway train, Tuesday, April 12, 2022, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. (AP Photo/Kevin Hagen)
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Crime is up 42.8% overall in New York City so far this year, with increases in six of seven major crime categories: rapes, robberies, felony assaults, burglaries, grand larcenies and grand larceny autos. Murder is the only category this is down in 2022, dropping 13.1% compared to last year.
Fox News's Stephanie Pagones contributed to this report.
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