January 26, 2008
Subway Crime Down, Murders Up a Few
Given that ridership is at record highs, the MTA and police are proud that subway crime is down from a year ago, according to statistics obtained by the New York Post.
Overall, crime is down almost 13% due to a drop in rapes, robberies, and grand larceny. Murders doubled from two in 2006 to four last year. Assaults also increased, up 9% from the same period a year ago. This is likely attributed to increased policing and willingness to arrest people in the NYC Transit system (arrests were up 27%, to almost 34,000, in 2007). Potential crimes may also be deterred by heavily armed anti-terrorism police units patrolling subway stations and trains cars. For a comparison to what the subways were like twenty years ago, read this NY Times article from 1988.
The drop in crime below ground mirrors a general trend in decreased violence in the city. Murders hit the lowest point in New York City in more than four decades last year. Still, the police plan to double the amount of resources dedicated to Operation Impact, which concentrates large numbers of officers in crime-prone areas.
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There was an article in The New Yorker I think about Bryant park and the female/male ratio, wherein it was theorized that the higher the number of women present, the more safe the park was. The idea was that women would come to the park when they felt safe, and would refrain from visiting the park when they didn't feel safe.
If this could be applied to the subway after midnight, I'd say it's not yet as safe as one would like. The number of times I find myself to be the only woman on the subway with over twenty men in the car, still surprises me.
NYC hit the all time high in murders in 1990. This was during the recession which occurred after 1987 stock market crash. With the possibility of economy going sour again, NYC would see a rise in crime.
I think this is less because of the police and more because the subways are so overcrowded these days that criminals are having a really tough time moving around. (The MTA will probably use this as a rationale to impose service cuts.)