The Murder Express is running local.
Killings in the New York City subway system since 2020 have skyrocketed to the highest annual levels in 25 years, even amid plummeting ridership numbers, as the city grapples with an overall spike in random violence, NYPD data show.
Since 1997, the earliest data The Post was able to access, there had never been more than five subway murders in a single year until the COVID-19 pandemic struck in 2020 and brought that number up to six for the first time in decades.
The next year, murders shot up to eight. So far in 2022, there have already been seven killings.
Together with 2020’s toll, that’s 21 slayings — which is more murders than the transit system saw between 2008 and 2019 combined.
“It used to be ‘I know if I don’t go to this neighborhood, I will be safe,’ but today you don’t have that,” said Professor Maria Haberfeld from CUNY’s John Jay College of Criminal, a former lieutenant in the Israel National Police.
“You can take the subway anywhere at any time of day, in broad daylight, and there is no guarantee of safety,” she told The Post.
The transit killings come after public officials have repeatedly promised to flood subway platforms and cars with police officers under Mayor Eric Adams’ subway safety plan, which has sought to reduce violence by cracking down on quality-of-life offenses and homelessness.
Despite the efforts, overall felony crime on the subways is up a whopping 42% compared so far this year compared to the same period in 2021 — and this year’s death toll is on pace to eclipse the eight murders clocked last year.
Most recently, two Big Apple dads – Tommy Bailey, 43, and Charles Moore, 38 – were separately knifed to death on their commutes home from work in random attacks that have left experts scratching their heads.
“It makes no sense,” said Chris Herrmann, an assistant professor at John Jay, who once served as a crime statistics expert at the NYPD.
“The victim wasn’t threatening, the victim was leaving, it doesn’t make sense when it comes to the victim-offender relationship,” Herrmann said, referencing Moore’s Oct. 6 murder at the 176th Street station in The Bronx, which happened right after the Citi Field worker had exited the train.
“It’s definitely a much more violent subway system, and it’s ironic when you look at the ridership numbers, it’s still down, so those numbers stand out even more.”
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2019, when an average 142 million people rode the trains each month, three murders happened in the subway system. These days, an average of just 81 million people are taking the train monthly, a small uptick from 2020 and 2021, which saw an average of 53.3 million and 63.3 million riders per month, respectively.
Dr. Dorothy Schulz, a professor emerita of law and police studies from John Jay College, said the low ridership numbers could be why so much violence is happening underground.
“Less subway activity by commuters or tourists has contributed to the fact that the percentage of people who are on the subway or streets with mental-health issues is higher,” Schulz told The Post.
“The subways are safer when there are more legitimate riders, commuters, tourists, whatever. That’s a place where the quaint expression ‘there is safety in numbers’ comes in,” Schulz said. “It keeps the others in check [on] the subway particularly, because if you are alone, there is a sense of vulnerability, and if there is someone looking to attack, they sense that.”
The MTA pointed out that homicides per million riders dropped 18% between 2021 and 2022 but acknowledged “violence is never acceptable.
“There’s no way to console those who have lost loved ones, and with murders dropping this year citywide by 14%, we are confident the NYPD will bring the same success to the transit system,” MTA rep Sean Butler said.
While overall crime on the rails is down 5% so far this year compared to the same time period in 2019, when ridership numbers were stable, straphangers are still 53% more likely to be the victim of a felony crime this year when factoring in the low ridership numbers.
During a crime-stats press briefing Friday, the morning after Moore was killed, NYPD Transit Chief Jason Wilcox intimated that violence in the subways is more “perception” than “reality.”
“The mayor, the NYPD and the MTA implemented a subway safety plan at the start of this year. The mission then and now is to confront the many challenges we race on the subways, including crime, quality of life and homelessness,” Wilcox said.
“We fully understand that perception could sometimes influence behavior just as much as reality can. So as the commissioner said, we remain committed to ensuring our public transit rides are not only safe but that they feel safe, too.”
To ensure New Yorkers are feeling safe underground, he said, NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell partnered with the MTA to record audio announcements that’ll air every 15 minutes at 400 subway stations through the end of October.
“Hello, I’m NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell. New York relies on its subway system like no other city in the nation. And your NYPD officers are working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, to keep it safe,” one of the announcements states.
“Enjoy your ride, and thank you for choosing mass transit.”
Source: New York Post
