Gov. Kathy Hochul unveils plan to tackle subway violence and mental health crisis in New York City
NEW YORK (WABC) -- New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is unveiling a new plan to help combat violent crimes in the city's subway system and to address the mental health crisis.
She said she is taking several steps to help fix the problem as she believes many crimes are linked to untreated mental illness.
Hochul will introduce legislation to make it easier to involuntarily commit to hospitals those suffering from mental illness -- as the city pleads for help to remove some recidivist criminal offenders from the subway system amid a spate of high profile crimes.
The governor admitted progressives in the state legislature may be against it.
"This has been rejected by the legislature in the past, it is my sincere hope that everyone in the legislature is paying attention to what is unfolding in our city and in our state, and that we need to ensure that those who are suffering from severe mental illness are getting the care they need and we're also protecting the innocent bystanders on our subways and on our streets," she said.
Her legislation would expand the definition of rules that allow someone to be committed to a hospital for a mental health evaluation if they are determined to be a potential harm to themselves or others.
"Legislative language will give more direction to the doctors and hospitals who are saying to us right now, when someone's brought in, we're not sure if we can keep them to give them, the care we believe they need as professionals, because the law is not firm enough," she said.
Some in the legislature and mental health advocates worry that expanding the policy would rope in people who aren't actually in need of hospitalization. They also claim removing people from the subway is not a long-term solution.
The mayor has for months been calling for legislation broadening the grounds for involuntary removal, as well as changing Kendra's Law, which allows people to petition a judge to force someone with mental illness into treatment.
The mayor has his own involuntary commitment initiative that has been mired in controversy since it was announced in 2022.
Hospitals in the state are currently only able to take in people who are a risk to themselves or others. This new legislation would "expand that definition" to allow for more involuntary removals.
"Denying a person life-saving psychiatric care because their mental illness prevents them from recognizing their desperate need for it is an unacceptable abdication of our moral responsibility," Adams said. "That is why, two years ago, our administration announced an ambitious plan to support New Yorkers living with untreated severe mental illness and experiencing homelessness, which included a new city protocol on involuntary removals and a package of proposed state legal reforms to maximize our ability to serve this population.
In addition to the new proposed legislation, other parts of Hochul's plan to keep the subway system safer include a $1 billion plan launched to revamp care, restoring nearly 1,000 inpatient psychiatric beds, and implementing discharge treatment plans.
Hochul has also made sure there are extra state police, MTA police and National Guard members in the subway in addition to the security cameras that are now in every subway car.
In a statement, the New York Civil Liberties Union says, "the change we need is not simply to lock more people away, especially those who pose no immediate threat to themselves or others. That doesn't make us safer, it distracts us from addressing the roots of our problems."
Hochul's statement came after a series of violent encounters in New York City's subways, many of which have attracted national attention and heightened fears over the safety of the country's busiest subway system.
In recent weeks, a man was shoved onto subway tracks ahead of an incoming train on New Year's Eve, a sleeping woman was burned to death and a man slashed two people with a knife in Manhattan's Grand Central subway station on Christmas Eve.
Violent crime is rare on the subway, which carried more than 1 billion riders in 2024. Still, random stabbings and shoves, along with other incidents, have unnerved riders and attracted heavy attention online.
Major crimes on the subways were down through November compared with the same period last year, but killings rose from five to nine, according to police data. Still, some have pointed to an increase in assaults since prior to the pandemic - there were 326 recorded through November in 2019, compared to 521 in the same period in 2024.
(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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