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MTA Will Pay for More NYPD Presence on Subways
By
Jen Chung
Published Jul 18, 2005
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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By
Jen Chung
Published Jul 18, 2005
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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The MTA will be paying for the additional police presence in the subways, according to Mayor Bloomberg. Police overtime to put one police officer on every train is costing the city $1.9 million a week, and Bloomberg said, "Let me give some credit to the MTA. They're willing to do this. They have some money. The governor has pushed them," even though he hasn't been happy about the MTA's footdragging on spending security funds. During his weekly radio talk, Mayor Bloomberg also said he "couldn't disagree more" with Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff's decision to focus on securing airline travel. Many of our commenters have questioned our anger at Chertoff's remarks, and there were quite a few valid points, but Gothamist thinks that this quote from the NY Times' Sewell Chan's Week in Review piece (which is a helpful overview of mass transit security) sums it up:
The United States mass transit system also lacks the aviation system's built-in security: limited accessibility, a ticketing system that requires identification and a single governing agency, the Federal Aviation Administration. By contrast, the Federal Transit Administration has little say over security policies. That's left to the country's 6,000 mass transit agencies.
Of course, whether or not the cities want the feds meddling more is another issue, but federal funding would be critical. Newsday looks at transit security across the country in Chicago (security cameras on buses), San Francisco (no more garbage cans underground), DC (chemical sensors), and Atlanta (bombproof trash cans ever since the 1996 Olympics) - and how NYC compares. And the police are now patrolling Amtrak train cars as well. Isn't Amtrak federally funded? We hope there are some federal funds coming to pay for the security!
For some subway levity, we highly recommend the awesome New York City Subway Trains: 12 Punch and Build Subway Trains.
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Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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