When Ahmed El Galad, 60, reports to work as a teacher in New York City public schools, he takes the A train heading to the George Washington Bridge Bus Station on 175th Street.
He’s been stopped there twice and searched by law enforcement.
“They check me because I come in from New Jersey and there is a police station there,” Mr. El Galad told The Epoch Times at the Fulton Street subway station. “I don’t mind. I agree about that. It means they are keeping us safe.”
New York Mayor Eric Adams acknowledged at a press conference this week that many people don’t feel safe on the subway system and announced that in response, the city is increasing bag checks.
There are 4 million people who ride the subway every day, according to City Hall data, and at the moment, an average of six felonies are being reported every 24 hours.
“We want to get rid of every one of those six felonies,” Mr. Adams told reporters. “We want what’s called omnipresence, which is a very visible presence of that uniform.”
State police and national guardsmen patrolled Grand Central Station and its subway on the evening of March 6, while New York Police Department (NYPD) officers manned a bag check station.
“There’s not a big difference between the National Guard and the NYPD,” Mr. El Galad said. “The police belong to the city and the National Guard belong to the federal government. They are protecting us. They’re not here to fight us.”
The reinforcement of bag checks arrived a week after Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) conductor Allen Scott, 59, was slashed in the neck by a suspect who was still on the loose at the time of writing.
When asked about the increase in bag checks, an NYPD spokesperson said the department already conducts subway bag checks seven days a week.
“Locations are primarily chosen through intelligence data, threat assessments, and passenger volume,” the NYPD spokesperson told The Epoch Times.
After Mr. Adams’s press conference on March 5, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the next day that there would be 750 National Guard members and 250 MTA workers and state police deployed to help implement the enhanced bag checks at subway stations citywide.
“It’s just more resources,” Manhattan resident Jay Fernandez, 49, told The Epoch Times at the Union Square subway station. “That’s all. They are probably short-staffed working in the subways so they’re bringing them in. It’s going to deter criminals so that the people feel safer.”
Ms. Hochul also unveiled a five-point subway safety plan that includes amending the law to ban repeat offenders from using the subway, installing cameras in the conductor’s cabin, and allocating $20 million for mental health outreach.
“These brazen heinous attacks on our subway system will not be tolerated,” she said.
The state is funding the additional measures, but it’s unclear how long the extra dollars will last.
New Jersey resident Lisa Koss, 50, doesn’t believe the added troops will make a difference.
She travels to New York City for work.
“It'll just make criminals a little more smart about the way they’re going to hide whatever it is they’re bringing in,” Ms. Koss told The Epoch Times at the 34th Street–Herald Square subway station. “I really think it’s just instilling more fear in people, not help.”
The NYPD has never stopped Icy Traore, 23, but she has watched other people’s bags being searched.
“It’s disgusting and an invasion of people’s privacy,” the Queens resident and art student told The Epoch Times at the Union Square subway station.
