Security measures are being increased in the New York subway. The National Guard is also deployed. Recently there has been an increase in incidents involving knives and firearms in the famous subway system.
A five-point plan aims to make the New York subway safer. It was introduced by Kathy Hochul, Governor of the US state of New York. The Democrat is counting on more bag checks, driving bans for convicted subway attackers and a file for repeat offenders. Cameras should also be installed in the driver’s cabs of the trains and teams should be deployed to identify people with acute mental problems and bring them to support facilities.
The stronger presence of emergency services has been implemented in the short term and has already been noticed for days: The New York police are much more visible, for example at the entrances to the stations, on the platforms and in the subways themselves. Now there are another 1,000 emergency services, 750 of them belong to the National Guard.
More attacks around the subway
According to police figures, there were 570 registered physical attacks on trains or stations last year – the highest number in more than 20 years and an increase of 53 percent compared to the period before the corona pandemic. So far this year, 53 attacks have been reported. Last year at this time there were 40.
Just recently, a 34-year-old was killed in a shooting at a subway station. A few days ago, a train driver was knocked down and a woman was hit in the face by an unknown person out of nowhere.
Charlotte Voß, ARD New York, tagesschau, March 6, 2024 9:04 p.m