De Blasio: Despite Crime Increase, Subway Riders Still Extremely Safe
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Mayor Bill de Blasio insisted Wednesday that the odds of a subway rider becoming a crime victim are extremely low.
As WCBS 880's Rich Lamb reported, de Blasio noted that on many days the trains carry more than 6 million people.
"We have right now 6.64 crimes per day in our subways," he said. "That means still roughly a one-in-a-million chance of being a victim of crime."
The latest year-to-date numbers from the NYPD Transit Bureau show an increase in robberies, felonies and grand larceny crimes from January to mid-November.
Robbery incidents increased from 384 to 481, felony assaults rose from 190 to 222 and grand larceny incidents rose from 1,372 and 1,426 since last year.
"The typical subway crime is the theft of electronics -- an iPhone or other electronics," de Blasio said. "That's not a minor matter, but it's not at all what we used to experience in the subways.
"What we used to experience in the subways was mayhem. Today, we have not only order, we have the highest subway ridership we've ever had."