NYPD Expands Neighborhood Policing With More Officers Patrolling Subways
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – Neighborhood policing gets officers out of patrol cars and onto the sidewalks.
Now, it's getting a transit twist. The NYPD Transit Bureau is adding 100 newly hired officers.
As CBS2's Dave Carlin reports, they will report daily to subway stations and apply neighborhood policing practices, growing bonds between law enforcement and the public and looking out for crime.
"They're responsible for the quality of life conditions, they're responsible for the turnstile jumpers," said NYPD Transit Bureau Chief Edward Delatorre.
The officers are being added to four transit districts – District 3 in Manhattan and the Bronx, District 4 in Manhattan, District 32 in Brooklyn and District 20 in Queens. Two other districts got neighborhood policing back in April.
"We now have half of our 12 transit districts up and running with neighborhood coordination officers," NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill said.
The NYPD says the number of officers added to patrol subway stations and platforms will continue to rise.
"We intend to and will roll out the rest of the districts in early 2019," said Delatorre.
Some straphangers say even though the same officers will report to the same subway stations day after day, earning people's trust could still be a challenge that takes time.
"For police to get to know the community and for the community to get to know them is a good idea," Megan McLaughlin, of Sugar Hill, said.
"They cannot do their job as well as they should under the circumstance that there's so much mistrust," said John Rosenthal, of Inwood.
The NYPD says when neighborhood policing is fully rolled out in the subways, it will mean a 15 percent increase in staffing for transit enforcement.
