Gov. Hochul to deploy 1,000 National Guardsmen, state cops to carry out bag checks in NYC subways
NY Post
Nearly 1,000 New York National Guardsmen, state police and MTA cops are being deployed to carry out bag checks in the Big Apple’s crime-ridden subway system, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Wednesday.
The additional forces — made up of 750 guardsmen and 250 law enforcement officers — will work alongside the NYPD to patrol “the city’s busiest transit stations” amid a recent surge in underground violence, Hochul said.
“These brazen, heinous attacks on our subway system will not be tolerated,” Hochul said as she announced a five-point plan to crack down on the city’s burgeoning underground crime wave.
“No one heading to their job or to visit family or go to a doctor appointment should worry that the person sitting next to them possesses a deadly weapon,” Hochul said. “They shouldn’t worry about whether someone’s going to brandish a knife or gun. That’s what we’re going to do with these checkpoints.”
It wasn’t immediately clear when commuters would start seeing the extra forces, or at which subway stations.
It comes after Mayor Eric Adams, who was noticeably absent from Hochul’s subway crime crackdown announcement, had said a day earlier that the NYPD, too, would increase its presence underground and enhance bag checks following a spike in transit crime.
