There will be a day when the National Guard isn’t checking bags at the entrances of highly trafficked New York City subway stations — just don’t expect it anytime soon.
Gov. Kathy Hochul first sent hundreds of National Guard members into the subway system more than two months ago amid a string of high-profile violent crimes. She tasked them with randomly searching riders’ belongings before they enter the subway.
Since then, New York state has spent about $2.7 million on the effort, according to the Democratic governor’s budget division. National Guard soldiers — usually two at a time — are being sent to an average of 85 stations each day across the five boroughs, the state Division of Military and Naval Affairs said.
Hochul is painting the program as an “overwhelming success,” even as critics including the Riders Alliance, a nonprofit that advocates for New York City transit riders, accuse her of making the subway seem like a “war zone.” But she’s also signaling that the National Guard is likely to remain in place for now despite a significant drop in subway crime.
“I … know that, statistically, crimes trend upward in the summer months,” Hochul told reporters on Monday. “And so it’s probably not the time to say we’re done.”
The governor’s subway safety plan, which was unveiled on March 6, focused on supplementing the NYPD’s already increased presence in the transit system with additional state personnel. That included up to 750 National Guard members who were already active as part of Joint Task Force Empire Shield, a unit created after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Hochul’s move to boost law enforcement in the subway coincided with Mayor Eric Adams’ move to increase police visibility there in order to combat what he said was a perception of lawlessness in the city.
So far, the National Guard has completed 4,657 “missions” in support of the NYPD and MTA police since Hochul launched the subway bag checks, according to Division of Military and Naval Affairs spokesperson Eric Durr. Each trip to a subway station counts as a mission.
If the state’s additional security presence on the subway remains in place for a year, the state Division of Budget estimates it would cost $17 million, or about $1.4 million per month. That’s on top of other, similar costs borne by the MTA and New York City for a surge of workers in the subway.
The MTA is currently spending an estimated $1 million per month on private security guards meant to discourage fare evasion, while the NYPD’s overtime costs for transit officers exploded from $4 million in 2022 to $155 million in 2023.
On Monday, Hochul declined to say what metrics she’s using to determine whether the bolstered security effort has been successful, though she pointed to a declining transit crime rate in the city, with NYPD data showing it’s dropped 5% year to date through April compared to the same period in 2023. The governor added that she’s planning an event where she would detail such statistics “very shortly.”
Danny Pearlstein, a spokesperson for the Riders Alliance, said ordering the National Guard into the subway sent the wrong message.
“The subway isn’t a war zone or a disaster area,” he said. “Rather than deploying troops to the turnstiles, the state should be redoubling investments in housing, health care, education, employment and rehabilitation for New Yorkers who need them.”
Hochul said she intends to withdraw the National Guard from the subway at some point, perhaps after the summer.
“If the presence of National Guard in addition to the NYPD makes people feel better, more likely to take the subway, have a better experience, that’s good enough for me,” she said. “But there will be an endgame.”
Stephen Nessen and Bahar Ostadan contributed reporting.
