New York City's Democratic Mayor Eric Adams says he is introducing bag checks for subway riders after a 13 percent increase in crime – more than a decade after the city's similar “stop-and-frisk” policy was declared unconstitutional.
Recent criminal activity on the trains that has made headlines includes a cellist who was hit in the head with a water bottle by a stranger during his performance, and a shooting that killed one and injured five others.
“We know people feel unsafe,” Adams, himself a former transit police officer, admitted during a news conference.
The mayor said he would bring back methods previously used during times of great distrust.
“We are reintroducing bag checks.” “There are several things we are reintroducing into the system,” Adams added, with the NYPD reportedly searching bags for weapons such as knives, box cutters, clubs and firearms.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams says he will increase police presence in subway stations and return bag and backpack checks after crime rose 13 percent
Each week, 94 bag inspection teams will be deployed to 136 stations, although the exact locations are still being determined. The city is also exploring technology to detect metal objects entering the transportation system.
Screening teams will be able to check each passenger's luggage for weapons under the long-dormant policy.
These subway inspection protocols were originally submitted to the MTA following the 2005 London bombings.
But it could bring back memories of the city's “stop-and-frisk” policy, which was ended in 2014 after it was deemed “unconstitutional.”
That year, then-Mayor Bill de Blasio announced he would no longer fight a lawsuit from the Center for Constitutional Rights and ended the policy. This practice included police stopping civilians on the street and searching them for weapons.
De Blasio's announcement came at a press conference in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Brownsville, where police stops were particularly frequent. Attorneys for the plaintiffs who sued the city over stop-and-frisk attended the event along with city officials.
In a 2019 speech at the Christian Cultural Center, a historically black church in Brooklyn, Bloomberg admitted, “I was wrong.”
Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the practice often led to the disproportionate incarceration of blacks and Latinos, adding that he “cannot change history.”
But he said if someone was mistakenly stopped by police: “I apologize” and added: “Our focus was on saving lives.” But the fact is: far too many innocent people were stopped when we tried to do that.
According to a court filing, the city asked the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York to send the case back to a federal judge “so that the parties can consider a resolution.”
Mayor Bill de Blasio announced he would no longer fight a lawsuit from the Center for Constitutional Rights and ended the stop-and-frisk policy in 2014
Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has abandoned his longstanding support for the controversial “stop and frisk” policing strategy ahead of his failed presidential bid
Adams, a Democrat, is working with New York Gov. and fellow liberal Kathy Hochul, who says she is sending state agencies to help address the problem after the pair met with MTA officials last week, according to NBC New York had.
“Governor Hochul has made historic commitments to make our subways safer, from surveillance cameras to mental health staff, and tomorrow she will introduce new laws to protect riders, new state personnel to assist the NYPD with bag checks, and other new measures to retain New Yorkers.” said a spokesman for Adams.
Hochul plans to announce her own plans on Wednesday to protect subway riders, increasing funding for police overtime and mental health care.
She also plans to introduce legislation to increase the number of state employees assigned to assist the NYPD with bag checks.
With crime up double digits compared to this point in 2023 and civilians and employees attacked, the Transit Workers Union has sharply criticized its supervisors at the MTA for failing to protect them.
“We stand ready to support Local 100 as it confronts this scourge of violence – and public transit leaders who are either inept or indifferent to the harm inflicted on their own employees day and night,” said TWU President John Samuelsen .
“When it comes to workplace safety, the MTA has failed catastrophically. “Assaults on public transport workers in the subway have increased by almost 60 percent in the past year.”
“We know people feel unsafe,” admitted Adams, himself a former transit police officer
The mayor said he would bring back methods such as bag checks, previously used in times of high suspicion
Adams, a Democrat, is working with New York Gov. and fellow liberal Kathy Hochul, who says she is sending state agencies to help address the problem after the pair met with MTA officials last week
Subway crime has been on the rise recently, with 2023 seeing the most subway attacks since 1996. There were three homicides on the tracks earlier this year, compared to none at this time last year.
The head of the NYPD's transportation network has made his own efforts to address the problem by integrating more than 1,000 police officers into the transportation system, and credits the move with a 17 percent reduction in crime in February.
Riders and even subway performers are trying to make their voices heard, led by a recent subway crime victim.
Iain Forrest, 29, a medical student and musician, played his electric cello at the 34th Street Herald Square Station on the evening of February 13th.
In a shocking moment captured on video, an unknown woman came over, picked up the metal water bottle he had placed on the ground and smashed it over his head. The bottle clattered to the floor as Forrest clutched his head in pain.
Forrest announced on Instagram earlier Sunday that he had formed a coalition with his fellow musicians called the Subway Performers Advocacy Group, but says he will no longer be performing underground for the time being.
The cellist who was hit in the head with a water bottle by a stranger while performing on the New York subway last week says he is tired of performing on platforms
'[I]“It kind of breaks my heart that this is something that has to stop indefinitely unless there is a systemic change with protections for performing on the subway,” he said.
The group's stated goal is to ask the MTA and NYPD to collect statistics on crimes against subway musicians so that police resources can be “smartly deployed where they are needed to prevent attacks.”
Forrest, who said his escaped attacker still hasn't been caught, told the New York Daily News he didn't understand what exactly had happened to him until the attacker literally beat him.
“I couldn't quite get my bearings and it wasn't until I saw my metal water bottle rolling around on the floor and I saw the face of the crowd – full of awe, disbelief and shock – that I realized that I think someone was watching my back hit my head with my metal water bottle,” he said.