NYPD stepping up use of drones to crack down on subway surfing and save lives
LONG ISLAND CITY, Queens (WABC) -- The NYPD is hoping that the expanded use of a crucial tool will stop subway surfing and save lives.
The NYPD is stepping up its airstrikes, launching more surveillance drones in the skies over two city subway lines. Those lines include elevated stretches of the J and the 7 lines, where young people have been spotted riding on top of subway trains.
The new initiative was announced Thursday afternoon by Mayor Eric Adams.
"The average age is 14 -- as young as nine and as old as 33," Adams said. "Can you imagine a 9-year-old on top of that train?"
This past weekend, two girls tumbled off a Manhattan-bound 7 train. One was killed, the other was critically injured.
Just days earlier, a 13-year-old boy was killed the same way. Six have died so far this year, more than in all of last year.
The MTA keeps statistics on people seen riding on top of trains or in between cars, and the increase is alarming.
Back in 2019, it was 490, but in the first eight months of this year, it was more than 2,500. Now, on average, there are nine incidents reported every day.
When subway surfers are spotted, officers radio ahead to colleagues down the line, where they intercept the train and make arrests. Most are juveniles, and their parents are later confronted with the images.
"When they watch their child, their loved ones on top of this train, they cannot believe what they are watching," said NYPD Deputy Commissioner for Operations Kaz Daughtry.
Norma Nazario, lost her son, Zackery last year. She has become an activist, determined to reach young people like Zackery.
"Already it saved more than 100 lives," she said. "That's 100 families who don't have to live with the heartbreak that I am living every day that I carry with me."
Mayor Adams believes that more outreach in the schools will save lives.
"Having some of the classmates of those who were lost, going in and telling their stories about, you know, how it felt losing a loved one, I think is a different impact," he said.
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