MTA reveals increase in attacks on NYPD officers and transit workers in subways
NEW YORK (WABC) -- Crime overall has been falling in New York City subways, but attacks on officers, now patrolling the system in large numbers, are up more than 150% over a five-year period.
While Wednesday's MTA board meeting was expected to focus on securing more federal funding for the agency, that alarming statistic was a major subject.
New York City police officers are making arrests in record numbers underground, in stepped-up patrols on the trains, on the platforms and at the turnstiles. But as they do, they are becoming crime victims themselves.
It goes back to 2022, when assaults on police officers jumped dramatically and have been rising ever since. In one out of every three felony assaults in the subway, the victim is a police officer.
"Arrests are 100% up, especially people being stopped for fare evasion, honestly," said MTA CEO and chairman Janno Leiber. "And some of those people who apparently got used to the idea that fare evasion was a God-given right, take it, then haul off and actually hit cops, which is shocking to me. But we see it every day."
With the massive police deployments, major crime is down 22% so far in 2025. In 1997, there were 17 felonies a day. Last year, there were just six.
But officers are under orders to enforce so-called "quality of life" offenses, like "fare beating" and smoking, and as they do, they are often confronted by the unstable people who are menacing riders.
Felony assaults are now up 55%. Although arrests are up 160%, assaults on police are up 152% since the pandemic.
"Contributing to the rise in felony assaults is the disturbing and unacceptable dramatic increase in the number of NYPD cops being assaulted, all while proactively patrolling the subway system," said MTA Chief Security Officer Michael Kemper.
Wednesday's meeting comes just a day after Leiber spoke with state lawmakers in Albany about securing more funding. New York Governor Kathy Hochul also reached out to the federal government on behalf of the agency.
The MTA has estimated it could rake in half a billion dollars from the congestion pricing program if it isn't blocked by President Donald Trump.
Governor Hochul argues that more money is needed and necessary because the MTA carries roughly half of the nation's mass transit riders but receives only 17% of federal transit dollars.
Representative Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY 11th District), a critic of congestion pricing, shared her thoughts on this latest ask for money.
"If the mismanagement continues, if it allows to be run like a bloated, mismanaged bureaucracy, it's going to keep going down a black hole," she told Eyewitness News.
If the MTA doesn't get capitol money, another "summer of hell" could be in the future of New Yorkers due aging subway electrical systems and crumbling infrastructure.
Meanwhile, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy called the request for more money "outrageous."
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