NEW YORK — Almost 500 straphangers have been ticketed this year for taking up too much space napping in subway cars, a New York Police Department chief said Friday at a City Council budget hearing.
The enforcement is part of the crackdown since Mayor Eric Adams and police last month announced they were determined to drive down subway crime and restore order underground while trying to connect the homeless with social services.
Chief of Transit Jason Wilcox said more than 1,000 extra officers now patrol the subway system.
He said officers have helped place 198 homeless people in shelters and have issued 470 summonses for the offense of “outstretching,” as sprawling out to sleep in a subway car is called, plus more than 13,000 summonses for fare evasion, 1,080 for smoking, 620 for drinking and 200 for public urination. Wilcox also said arrests for fare evasion are up 44%.
“We are now very much focused on these quality-of-life situations that we’re experiencing in transit,” Wilcox said. “We’re working very hard to restore that sense of calm, that sense of order in the transit system.”
The increase reflects a broader rise in enforcement this year as the NYPD deals with a 45% surge in the overall crime rate.
Murders are down thus far, to 76 compared to 82 at the same time last year. But the other six felonies that comprise the crime rate are up sharply — including 35% for rape, 44% for robbery, 62% for grand larceny and 92% for grand larceny auto.
On top of that, petty larcenies, many of them incidents of shoplifting, are up 35%.
But Sewell, in her first appearance — albeit virtual — before the council’s Public Safety Committee said she expects the newly unveiled Neighborhood Safety Unit to help drive down the gun violence that has surged across the city the past two years.
And so far this year, she said, arrests for major crimes have increased, including 40% for rape and 24% for robbery.
But, she noted, the key to long-range success will be less about enforcement and more about prevention, namely by steering young people away from trouble and toward services such as a police-run East New York community center that provides services and programs.
“And it will take a collective effort to change the mindset that has lead some of our youth to believe they must join a gang to be safe, or that striving for academic success isn’t cool,” Sewell said, “or that it is not worth trying to become a doctor, lawyer, financier or police commissioner — because it is attainable.”
She also acknowledged flaws in the criminal justice system, noting that too often prisoners quickly wind up homeless because when they are released they are given little more than a bus ticket and a couple of dollars.
The preliminary NYPD budget for the upcoming fiscal year is $5.2 billion, down from $5.6 billion for the current fiscal year.
Sewell said she is reviewing every bureau in the department with an eye on reducing redundancies and maybe even eliminating certain units.
But City Councilwoman Tiffany Cabán, a Queens Democrat, scoffed at the idea police are trying to do more with less.
“Your budget is bigger than that of the Ukrainian military,” Cabán said. “It’s bigger than that of many countries’ militaries, in fact.”
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