New York City trains have never been the safest place. This year I have seen that there has been more crime rates than any other years in my life and many new yorkers can say the same. Just like me, many New York City residents have felt unsafe riding the subways nowadays. According to the MTA, about three million people everyday rely on the MTA subways. Train safety should be a top priority to New York officials and is something many people want. 

Crime rates in New York have gone up by 60% compared to last year during this time. Just two weeks ago there was a shooting in a train in Brooklyn that caused 19 to be injured and another 10 more with gunshot wounds. There have been many more incidents that cause many to feel unsafe in MTA subways. There have been incidents from people getting assaulted by either getting shoved in the subway tracks, attacked by hammers, and getting stabbed/slashed. Each month another crime is recorded. A lot of people including myself don’t stand near the platform and now lean against walls or stand feets away to avoid the fear that something can happen. Almost Everyday, there is an incident that happens in subways or in stations, that causes many people’s lives. Unsafety in NYC subways is a big issue and affects many people. Many of us rely on the NYC subways for work, school, and to go to many different places. Train safety doesn’t just affect just the people but it also affects the MTA. Bad reputation and unsafety will make many not want to take the trains anymore and can lead to a lot of money being lost. 

While there has been more police enforcement in Subways, this still doesn’t bring down crime rates in subways. On the contrary it has been worse. After the train shootout that happened on April 12,2022 there were less people riding the train during that week. Instead of the average 3 million, the number of riders that week went to 1-2 million, losing about one through two million riders. At this rate, the MTA can lose millions of dollars. Many New Yorkers don’t have cars due to public transportation and will waste more money on cabs.That’s why I bring a solution that will help many. By having at least one cop on every car and being able to request a police officer to accompany you, this will make many feel safe, bring work to many police officers, and help the MTA.

There are about 36,000 officers and we can use at least half to go to every train station to offer help. Police officers are usually bored when they guard a safe area and tend to do nothing. And in the most respectful way, instead of officers doing nothing they can offer help in subway stations. When a person enters a subway station there will be officers near or in the station ready to serve new yorkers. While we request half of police officers to be in subways, we will still have the other half working and patrolling the city, outside of the city. New Jersey is currently the safest state in the U.S and has more than 38 thousand police officers. With this being said, with the rates of police officers being bored and already having states that are safe, we can get many police officers from many different states, such as New Jersey to come and serve the people of New York City. We can also have police officers from other states, request to help out in the NYC subways and can be MTA security. Out of all states New York has ranked “13th in spending per law enforcement employee.” Since safety is already a big issue, the government of the state will help fund for more officers and won’t have a problem with it. In general there has been no problem with New York’s law enforcement budget, so it wouldn’t be a problem when we recruit more cops. I know a lot of people will enjoy this option( especially elderly people). And if you personally don’t request an officer for yourself, knowing that someone else’s personal cop on the train will make many feel safe.  It will bring a lot of safety to subways, and make many want to ride the train with a personal police officer. This solution will truly make New York City a better place.