Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul and Mayor Adams Announce Major Actions to Keep Subways Safe and Address Transit Crime, Building on Ongoing State and City Collaboration

Earlier today, New York Governor Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced expanded initiatives to keep New York City subways safe and address transit crime. The initiatives include a significant investment from the State's public emergency fund and a commitment to work with the city on a dedicated revenue source to support additional police presence in the subway system. NYPD and MTA will surge officer presence on platforms by approximately 1,200 additional overtime officer shifts each day on the subway — equating to approximately 10,000 additional overtime patrol hours every day — as well as two new dedicated units at psychiatric centers to help provide those experiencing serious mental health illness with the assistance they need.

VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.

AUDIO of the event is available here.

PHOTOS of the event will be available on the Governor's Flickr page.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks are available below:

Good afternoon, everyone. Just want to take a moment to acknowledge the individuals you'll be hearing from shortly. That is, of course, our mayor. I'll introduce him momentarily. Our Commissioner of Police, Janno Lieber, the Head of the MTA.

We're here to talk about a core belief that we all share. That for 118 years, this subway has been the lifeblood of our city. It connects millions of hard working New Yorkers to their jobs, their homes, to their families every single day, and it helps visitors from around the world explore the greatest city known to man or womankind. Without it, New York would not be New York. Since my first days in office, I've said we need our subway system to truly work. It has to be on time, but most importantly, it has to be safe. And the good news is since the pandemic, ridership is up. We're currently averaging about 3.6 million riders a day. That's a great sign. It means that New Yorkers are finding their way back, getting back to normalcy in their everyday lives. They're getting back to work, they're getting back to school, they're visiting friends, they're going to shows. But we have to make sure that that progress stays on track because even as ridership continues to tick up, it's still below pre-pandemic levels. But I want it all the way back and New York needs it all the way back.

So, that's ultimately how our city functions best. The more people on the subway, the less congestion. I walk the streets of this city almost every day. It is very congested. We also have to have a dynamic, heavily used transit system, but we know there's a hurdle. There's a hurdle to what could be a barrier to getting us there. People are still very much concerned about transit crime. I've heard this from New Yorkers. As I said, I walked the streets, I take the subway, go to baseball games. We're expecting in a few hours there'll be a lot of people taking the four train up to see the Yankees. We all have heard, seen the subways, the stories, the headlines - violent attacks, muggings, a 15-year-old boy losing his life to violence just a week ago. Nine homicides in our subway so far this year. Tragic losses of life.

Here's what we have to continue to do. Focus on what we have in our control. Focus on getting that sense of security back. And I'll continue to use the resources of the State of New York and bring this violence to end. I'm constantly asking my team, and they're the best. We speak regularly about what we can do. I'm always saying, "What can we do to make our subways safer?" And my answer back to everyone, I say, "Do whatever it takes." And that's why we're here today, to be joined by my partners, these leaders. We have a crime fighting strategy. We've leaned into proven law enforcement strategies, investing in new technologies that'll make a difference, and we're providing New Yorkers the support and the help they need.

Here's what we're calling it: Cops, Cameras, Care. It's easier to remember the three C's. Now, I don't want — I want to very clear here, this is not something we started thinking about recently. It's something we've been laser focused on — the MTA, NYPD — since the beginning. The Mayor and I have been working to find solutions literally since his first day in the job, I believe was January 6th when we went to the subways together and talked about a new era of cooperation between the state and the city to solve these common problems that we share. We also talked about how we're going to continue to overturn every single stone in search of an answer, because my top priority as the Governor of the State of New York is to keep New Yorkers safe. And that means on our streets, in their homes and on our subways.

What we're announcing here today is a beefing up of the police presence on the subway platforms and cars. Proud to announce that MTA police, where I have oversight, they report to the MTA, which reports to me, will be working with the NYPD to strategically deploy more officers and allow them to increase their presence on the platforms and trains as well. It's a tactical approach. Where is the need the greatest? How do we bring in reinforcements? We are the reinforcements, and that's what we're announcing here today. So, here's how it'll work. MTA police will be taking primary responsibility for the first time for policing stations linked to our major commuter rail hubs — Penn Station, Grand Central, Atlantic Terminal, and Jamaica Station. What this will do is to allow the NYPD to increase their coverage across the subway system.

I'm also proud to announce that we're going to help fund the deployment of more NYPD officers to perform these services. We're going to make a significant investment from the state's Public Emergency Fund to support the additional officers on subways throughout the days. And we'll continue to work with the city to find a dedicated revenue source going forward, Mayor Adams will speak more about this. But I first want to say this: to Commissioner Sewell, the brave men and women of the NYPD, I thank you for the incredible work you're doing and the challenges that law enforcement has to encounter every single day. So, supporting law enforcement, deploying more resources, bringing in reinforcements from us is an important first part of the strategy. So, expanding law enforcement is just one side of it. But also, we want to have a more significant presence — visible presence. People want to see that there's an officer there when they need help. It's also an incredible deterrent. It's an incredible deterrent when you think about it.

So, the key takeaways — we'll do ever whatever we can, whatever's necessary to keep New Yorkers safe. But it's not just increasing the police presence from the numbers standpoint, it's also making sure they have the training they need to really help New Yorkers. Right now, the New York State Office of Mental Health gives training to New York State Police and first responders in crisis intervention. But we have to make sure that all the first responders working in our subway system also have these critical skills. That's why today we're also announcing, we're expanding our training to inform MTA police, the NYPD and EMS on how to transport and deal with individuals in need of psychiatric evaluation. This training will incorporate the best practice for engaging the street and subway homeless population, helping officers better understand the problems they're facing and how to deal with them, so they can deescalate and ensure people get the help they need. So, what else are we going to do to help keep New Yorkers safe on our subways? Second is cameras. Last month, we announced that we'll be installing cameras on every single subway car. That process is underway, Janno can fill you in on more.

But I'm glad to say with the supply we have and we're in search of getting more procurement. We've already installed over 200 cameras across the system. And finally, I mentioned the three C's. Cops, Cameras, and Care. Back in January, we stood together at Fulton Station and talked about not just cracking down on subway crime, but also we shared our plan to address homelessness. Again, at the time, I think you were very surprised. I think the Mayor had been on the job for just a few days. I was a fairly new Governor, and what they saw was this partnership. For a long time, I'll just say it wasn't a partnership, and we changed that dynamic, so we could bring our resources together. So, what we're talking about next is understand that too many New Yorkers experience homelessness in our stations and our trains each night. Back then, we announced the creation of our Safe Option Support system, SOS critical intervention teams to focus on engagement, outreach and real genuine support that keeps people from cycling back into the system. We made a lot of progress. Our teams made contract with almost 2,700 individuals, and have enrolled 410 in direct services to keep them have from having to return. But we've seen over the last few months even more need to take care of these individuals.

And here's the action we're taking: For the first time ever we will now have a new initiative from the Office of Mental Health. We're launching the Transition to Home Initiative. This will add dedicated inpatient beds, 50 to start, to ensure that people get the help they need. Not just to go to Bellevue and come back out the next hour. This is longer term supportive assistance housing, to get them in a system where they can be stabilized and not ever have to return here. And we'll be focusing on. Severely mentally ill individuals that we have identified here in the subways. We know who they are. We know who needs the most help, and I believe that not only will this provide help for them, it'll also help alleviate the fear of many of our riders today. So, we'll be focusing on announcing the details later. We also announced in our budget, earlier this year, $27.5 million for hospitals to receive the same Medicaid reimbursement for psychiatric beds, as they do for medical beds. So, let me tell you why this was important. Months and months ago, I said, "What's happening? Why is there such a growing population of people with severe mental health challenges on our subways?"

And what I learned is that because there's a differential in how patient beds are reimbursed under the Medicaid program, a normal medical bed that requires, let's say basic training nurse and doctor, gets reimbursed at one rate. Psychiatric beds got reduced at a lower rate. I said, "Let's make up that differential." That's what our money from the state went towards. So, there's not an incentive to have fewer psychiatric beds, and we are told that that would bring on upwards of 1000 new beds online. We also had to make sure that we have the staff. $9 million reallocated to make sure that we had more psychiatric staff to take care of you. So, you can remove people, but you also have to make sure that they get the treatment they need so they don't come back. So, making sure our hospitals know they have a place to discharge people, too. It's not called the subway. It is called longer term assistance. And also know that there's a lot of people who may not be ready even just to be discharged. They're going to need this help. So, we don't want this recycling of people back into the system.

We're also launching a short term Community Residential Step-Down Program for individuals being discharged. Monitor them, help them, stabilize them so as they transition back into the community after receiving their support. This will build on the $12 million we have also for 500 additional support of housing beds. We know this won't solve the problem overnight, but what you need to hear today is an intentional effort. We know who the most severely mentally ill are. We know how people feel and the anxiety they feel when they encounter people and they're not sure if they could cause harm to themselves or their family members. This is a strong source of anxiety. I know this. So, we know this won't solve it overnight, but the effort is being undertaken, and I'm so grateful for the Mayor and the NYPD for being such outstanding partners in this effort. They also have answered this call from the beginning.

We are all stepping up our efforts to make sure that we can serve and protect, and I also want to thank the mental health providers and the SOS teams for ensuring that New Yorkers get the care they need. Again, through this multifaceted, crime-fighting supportive project. This initiative, adding more cops, installing more cameras, and providing more care to make our subway safer to let people know they're welcome here, they're safe here, and this is exactly what New York needs, and that's what New Yorkers deserve. Thank you very much. At this point, let me turn it over to Mayor Eric Adams. We have partnered so closely on the challenging issues facing this City. The State of New York is here to always lend our support to your efforts. Mayor Adams, thank you very much. Thank you.