NYPD to provide MTA with data on where officers are being deployed in subways
NEW YORK (WABC) -- For the first time, New York City transit officials will learn exactly where the NYPD is deploying hundreds of its officers underground.
New data will answer critical questions about how police commanders are protecting riders and the transit workers that move them, day and night.
"We moved in a really positive direction today. A presence is really important to our customers that they weren't seeing it and that they're going to start seeing it, going forward," Interim NYC Transit Authority President Sarah Feinberg said.
The NYPD has added 750 officers since February, amid a startling rise in violent crime. MTA officials commissioned their own survey over the past two weeks and determined that most stations had no visible police presence.
At the MTA's monthly board meeting, NYPD transit chief Kathy O'Reilly admitted that violent assaults remain troublingly high. And when pressed, committed to greater transparency in providing deployment data to transit officials.
"I don't think that we've ever been able to get any kind of deployment information or strategy from you all," Feinberg said.
"We're happy to revisit that, you know, we've deployed 1000s of officers into the subway, and each and every day, and we increased our deployment. We don't regularly release that information, where they actually posted. But we can talk offline, and we can discuss that," O'Reilly said.
