Violent crime rising in New York subways still much safer than 70s and 80s

It began in the early days of the pandemic in March, when someone lit a fire inside a subway car that killed the train operator and injured 16 others. In the following months, nearly 500 subway car windows were smashed on the No. 7 line. In August, a man tackled and tried to sexually assault a young woman at a station on the Upper East Side. And in September, a train derailed after a man threw metal clamps that he had stolen onto the tracks.

When the pandemic hit New York and subway ridership plunged, misdemeanor and felony crimes dropped to record lows: Between January and the end of September, the number of reported crimes in the system fell roughly 40 percent compared with the same period last year.

But even as overall crime has declined, violent crime and episodes of vandalism are rising, a trend that is stoking fear among passengers and posing another challenge for a transit system crippled by a virus outbreak that has deprived it of riders and money, reported the New York Times.

So far this year, the number of reported homicides, rapes, burglaries and robberies in the subway are higher than during the same period last year, according to Police Department statistics. Incidents of vandalism have also spiked, transit officials say.

Robberies have risen 16 percent, to at least 457 so this year, compared with 394 during the same period last year. The number of burglaries, including breaking into shops on platforms, stands at 22 so far this year, compared with five in the same period last year. And acts of vandalism have spiked 24 percent to 868 so far this year, compared with 702 last year, according to the transit agency.

Police officials have cautioned against being overly alarmist, noting that crime is nowhere near as bad as it was in decades past, when violence plagued the entire city, including the subway.

The subway is still far safer than during the dark days of the 1970s and 1980s, when violence on the graffiti-filled system was rampant and riders feared riding at night or in empty cars. But after two decades of steady declines in felonies, the recent uptick in major crimes — several of which have been captured on video and circulated on Twitter — has fed a perception among many riders that the system is slipping back into disorder.

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