Cops will start patrolling overnight subways on Monday

Police will start patrolling overnight subway trains sooner than you may have thought. 

Gov. Kathy Hochul announced on Thursday that 300 New York City Police Department officers are set to begin patrolling trains overnight starting on Monday. Two cops will be present on each of the roughly 150 subway trains that run between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m every night. The governor proposed the increased presence as part of her State of the State address on Tuesday.

According to the governor, the effort will cost the state $77 million in overtime for officers over the next three months, at which point the state budget is due. If state lawmakers agree, then the state government will fund three more months of NYPD overtime costs for the extra cops – bringing the total cost to $154 million.

According to the NYPD, Monday marks the start of Phase 1 of the overnight patrol plan, starting with 100 officers. Additional phases will roll out afterwards, with an expectation that all 300 officers will be on overnight trains by the end of the month. “This is a massive undertaking that involves specialized training as well as logistics and resource management,” an NYPD spokesperson said. 

Hochul was adamant that the overnight cops, along with another 750 NYPD officers flooding the system under her proposal, will not divert any police from other parts of the city or the subway. “They're not going anywhere,” Hochul said of the 2,500 officers already assigned to patrol the subway system. “This is not taking people out who are already performing important protection services.” 

Combined with the National Guard members she deployed into the subway – whom she previously admitted are purely psychological – the governor said that the state has nearly doubled the law enforcement presence underground. “People want to see police officers in the stations and on the trains,” Hochul said. She added, as she has numerous times in the past, that seeing officers makes people feel better. “I’m not going over crime statistics, it doesn’t matter,” Hochul said.

Last March, Hochul deployed 750 National Guard troops and 250 state police and Metropolitan Transportation Authority police officers into the subways. Last month, despite touting stats showing overall crime is down in the system, the governor sent in another 250 National Guard members. At the time, she confirmed that the National Guard is not allowed to arrest, detain or even touch anyone while on duty in the subways.

Earlier this month, New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced that he would also send 200 more police officers underground while similarly citing crime statistics that show that subway crime is down. However, the numbers of felony assaults and murders have increased recently, and high-profile incidents like the burning death of a sleeping woman on the train have shaken New Yorkers.

Hochul and Adams – who was not at the Thursday press conference in order to present his preliminary city budget – previously teamed up in 2022 to flood the subways with police and have the state pick up the overtime tab for 1,200 officers. The governor said that effort was a success, which is why she’s bulking up police presence again amid an uptick in certain violent crimes and unease among riders. “(Crime) went down so dramatically that we didn't have to do it again and again,” Hochul said. “This is cyclical. The crimes are more frequent during the winter months.”