About two weeks before Election Day, Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams announced the NYPD was adding an extra 1,200 overtime shifts to its department roster each day. This constitutes about 10,000 additional patrol hours, with officers deployed to over 300 subway stations across the City during peak hours.

 

During the announcement of the new program called, “Cops, Cameras, Care,” on Saturday, Oct. 22, at Grand Central Station in Manhattan, officials laid out a plan that included “Safe Operations Support Units,” units dedicated to providing assistance to people experiencing homelessness on the streets and subway.

 

The units will also provide additional training to members of the NYPD, MTA police and EMS in dealing with people affected by homelessness and the mentally ill. The new “Cops, Cameras, Care” program also calls for the installation of video surveillance cameras in every single subway car.

 

Gov. Hochul said, “I want to be very clear; this is not something we started thinking about recently. It’s something we’ve been laser focused on, the MTA, NYPD, since the beginning. The mayor and I have been working to find solutions literally since his first day on the job when we went to the subway together and talked about a new era of cooperation between the State and the City to solve these common problems that we share.”

 

Hochul added, “Today we’re also announcing we’re expanding our training to inform MTA police, the NYPD, and EMS on how to transport and deal with individuals in need of psychiatric evaluation. This training will incorporate the best practice for engaging the street and subway homeless population, helping officers better understand the problems they’re facing and how to deal with them.”

 

Adams added, “This effort will help with two things New Yorkers desperately want: the addition of hundreds of additional, strategically placed officers on our trains, and help to those suffering from serious mental health illness so they can find a way out of the subway system.” Adams added, “The bottom line is that riders will see more officers in the system, and so will those thinking of breaking the law.”

 

Speaking to Norwood News a day after the announcement, Norwood resident, Chris Perkins, recalled an unusual ride on a downtown 4 train on Friday, Oct. 21. “The conductor says, ‘This is 161 Street, Yankee Stadium and there is also a police department subway district,’ and I was like, why would they say that?” Perkins recalled wondering what the announcement meant as they pulled into the station. He continued, “Is he telling us to watch ourselves, and warning us that the cops are coming on the train and searching us?”

 

Recalling those first stops where officers were on many of the platforms, Perkins said, “I swear to God, we were all looking around like, ‘What the hell is going on?’ There were cops at every other station or two.” He added, “You got used to it along the way and all of a sudden, I’m thinking, I haven’t seen a cop on the subway in 3 years, and now they were like freaking everywhere.”

 

Meanwhile, Police Benevolent Association president, Patrick Lynch, quickly tweeted in response to the announcement, “The increased workload is crushing the cops who remain. The answer is not to squeeze them for more forced OT (overtime). Our city must immediately boost pay and improve working conditions in order to recruit and retain enough police officers.”

With many critics blaming bail reform for the surge in crime, on Sept. 10, Norwood News asked Manhattan Sen. Robert Jackson (S.D. 31), currently running in the upcoming general election on Nov. 8 to represent additional neighborhoods in the West Bronx, if he was worried about the upcoming election and a backlash over bail reform.

 

“No, not at all because bail reform was 2019,” he responded confidently. “We made some changes, and is there a possibility that we will look at some changes? I would say, yes, there is.” He continued, “However, State senate majority leader, Andrea Stewart-Cousins (S.D. 35) and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (A.D. 83) said that we’re not looking at that right now.”

 

Meanwhile, additional amendments, which took effect on May 9, were added to the cashless bail rules. These include additional factors judges may consider when deciding on bail, as well as expanding the list of gun crimes for which bail can be set. Hochul has also said she will revisit bail reform again when State legislators return to the Albany in January.

Based on NYPD statistics as of Oct. 23, there were 106 murders reported across the borough, compared with 124 during the same timeframe in 2021, a decrease of 14.5 percent. Felony assaults are up 17.6 percent, but overall crime in Bronx subways is currently up a whopping 41.6 percent.

 

Meanwhile, a day after the new police patrols were announced, the NYPD announced the arrest of a suspect wanted for slugging a 62-year-old straphanger who then fell onto the subway tracks. The incident was reported at the East 149th Street Station on the Grand Concourse at 9.45 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 23. Police charged Deshaun Smith, 21, of Brooklyn with assault, reckless endangerment, and harassment in the latest unprovoked subway attack.