Crime and violence in New York City’s subway system have spiraled out of control and are “significantly higher” than the agency’s official numbers have publicly indicated, according to a New York Police Department (NYPD) source.
The official number of arrests made in the city’s subway system rose by 45 percent this year, with more than 3,000 arrests made underground in the first two months of the year, many of them of repeat offenders, according to figures released by the NYPD Transit Bureau. However, the publicly released data only scratch the surface of the amount of crime in the nation’s largest transit system, a law enforcement source told The Epoch Times.
“The numbers they are putting out are a complete joke and everyone knows it,” the source, who requested anonymity out of fear of retribution, said. “The sense of lawlessness (on the subway) is so bad that unless you have personal experience in the system, especially at night, it is impossible to understand.
“It’s like the Wild West.”
NYPD officers have also been incentivized to not report minor offenses in an effort to keep the numbers as low as possible, according to the source, who said pressure has come from higher-ups to maintain the narrative that crime has plateaued or is going down.
However, a “significant majority” of the crimes that do occur on the subway go unreported by the victims, according to the source.
“People understand that the majority of those who commit larceny or assaults are never going to be apprehended, so why go through the trouble of making a report?” the source said.
The mayor’s office did not respond to a request for comment by press time.
The crime spree provoked New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to order 750 New York National Guard troops and 250 New York State Police troopers be deployed into the subway system to conduct bag searches and combat the surge in crime. The new deployment is in addition to the 1,000 New York City police officers who were ordered to patrol subway lines and do security checks on bags.
“No one heading to their job, or to visit family, or to go to a doctor’s appointment should worry that the person sitting next to them possesses a deadly weapon.”
Morale among NYPD officers is at an all-time low as crime and police resignations have been on the upswing, according to officials.
In January, officers’ jobs became more difficult after the New York City Council pushed through controversial legislation dubbed the “How Many Stops Act,” which requires police to officially document any encounter they have with the public, including logging the race, gender, and age of any person to whom they speak.
The recent exodus comes on top of years of officer attrition, eroding the ability of the nation’s largest police force to serve and protect to dangerous levels, according to Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Hendry.
