Gov. Kathy Hochul’s decision this week to address subway safety by sending 750 National Guard members into New York City’s transit system has little precedent in state history.
The last time the military was seen in the subway system in large numbers was the aftermath of 9/11, when more than 2,700 people were killed in the collapse of the Twin Towers. Before that, the National Guard helped rescue commuters trapped in subways during a blackout in November 1965.
This year, three people on the subway were murdered and a conductor was slashed in the neck.
Hochul said the National Guard presence would provide a “psychological” effect to deter crime and comfort riders, in part by assisting other law enforcement with bag checks.
But Felipe Rodriguez, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said that isn’t the purpose of the National Guard.
“They’re basically trained to keep a civil disturbance down,” he said. “But policing is totally different. I think we’re going to do more harm than good at this point.”
National Guard members get military-style training, while NYPD officers are better trained to deal with daily interactions with the public. Additionally, the National Guard is not authorized to make arrests.
NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell apparently agreed. After Hochul’s announcement, he wrote on the social media platform X that the city’s transit system was “not a war zone.”
NYPD data shows major felonies in the transit system are down 13% in the last 28 days compared to the same period last year. Chell argued the statistics showed that a surge of 1,000 police officers into the subway ordered by Mayor Eric Adams was working. Still, major felonies in transit are up 13% year to date compared to 2023.
Hochul’s office noted National Guard members have been stationed at major transit hubs in the city, including Penn Station and Grand Central, as part of a post-9/11 security initiative dubbed Operation Empire Shield. But those numbers of uniformed…
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