Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Announces Subway Crime Fell to Historic Lows This Summer

Earlier today, Governor Hochul announced that subway crime fell to record lows this summer. Overall transit crime from June 1 to August 31 was down nearly 10 percent from 2024 and 16.8 percent from the summer of 2019. Year-to-date, transit crime is at record lows, while subway ridership is up 9 percent, with over 311 million rides taken during the summer months. Transit felony assaults have been down every month this summer when compared to 2024. Together, June, July and August have had 119 felony assaults - compared to 150 last year - a reduction of 21 percent. There were 0.38 assaults per one million subway riders between June 1 and August 31. Accounting for increases in ridership, there were 1.59 major crimes per one million subway rides this summer, down 30 percent from 2022 and in line with pre-pandemic lows.

VIDEO: The event is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

AUDIO: The Governor's remarks are available in audio form here.

PHOTOS: The Governor's Flickr page will have photos of the event here.

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

Good morning everyone. Just had one of our fabulous rides on the New York City subway system. I want to thank Janno Lieber, our extraordinary chair and CEO of the MTA. I could not be prouder of the work that you and the men and women under your leadership are doing right now and that's what we're going to be here talking about. Michael Kemper everyone knows Michael, the chief of security here at the MTA, who deserves enormous credit for driving down crime and making New Yorkers much safer than they had been. We also have the chief of the MTA police department, Thomas Taffe, and all the men and women from law enforcement who are here today. I had a chance to thank many of them.

It's great to be back with everyone and to take the ride and just meet a little 19-month-old baby is always fun. Best part of a ride is to get to know everybody else on the train. I'm sure that's what all New Yorkers do, right? You should try it. I mean it's actually pretty nice to talk to people, but you know, what sets us apart from every part of the country is how extraordinary this system is. And when I look at the fact that just over this summer, there were 311 rides on the New York City subway people from all walks of life use it. Our tourists figuring it out, you can certainly spot them in a crowd, but our locals, and our businesses, and everyone who just realizes that this truly is the lifeblood of our region, and we need people to get where they're going safely.

When I first took office four years ago, I inherited a system that can only be described as a real mess. Crime was up, ridership was down, customer satisfaction was down, fare evasion was up, homelessness was up. So we looked at all these factors and we knew we had a lot of work to do to roll up our sleeves and get started. And not the least of which was also the MTA was facing a fiscal cliff, literally down the railroad track, possibly going off the edge.

So that's the MTA of late 2021 when I became Governor. But we are not daunted by this. I made a vow that we will work tirelessly to get this right and to reverse all those arrows. So we leaned in and found solutions, and began to turn things around. Beginning in 2022, I launched Cops, Cameras, and Care. What that talked about was adding more police, adding cameras, and more care for those who unfortunately have had to call this their home - people who need our help. We surged NYPD officers into the subway, my transit police were here as well, and we built on a plan and what we realized is that people feel better when they see individuals in law enforcement, just a fact of life. You assume that a person who's going to do harm was less likely to in front of an officer.

And that was part of why we made sure that we had two NYPD police officers supported financially by the State, a decision I made. Two police officers on every overnight train because on the overnight trains, what do you have? Fewer people, more anxiety for those who are the wait staff and the bartenders, hospitality, the people working late nights. People working in hospitals as well. A lot of our doctors and nurses have to take the late night trains, as well as our hardworking New Yorkers.

There's a higher sense of anxiety on the overnight. So we expanded that. We also added more platform barriers. You'll see them on, I think approaching 100 stations now - 150 by the end of the year.

And what that is as we know, there's been some horrific stories of people being literally pushed out onto the tracks - and we knew in sort of a low tech way we could alleviate that anxiety and give people the opportunity to stand literally behind a physical barrier while they're waiting for their train.

So that is something I'm dedicated to getting done, 150 stations will have it by the end of this year, and we're just warming up. Also LED lighting makes a big difference. I remember going into subway stations just like "It feels so dark and scary." I mean, things can happen when you don't have bright lights shining on the circumstances and the environment.

LED lights we have in how many stations, Janno?

You heard that? You heard it here from Janno Leber - whole system that I said get done, will be done by the end of the year. So our stations will be safer and more secure. So we're going to get that done.

Also, expand our outreach teams, the individuals to see, god's angels here on Earth. Those who develop relationships with those who've had a tough life, who find themselves living here, who have mental health challenges, who just need the dignity of a good home - and we've actually placed over a thousand people who have been long-term homeless, living in our stations, in our trains into housing that they deserve.

So what do we have now? This summer was the safest summer in at least 15 years - extraordinary. The safest July, and now I'm here to report officially the safest August in recorded history. And a lot of this had to do with the fact that we were working hard on all these initiatives. And as I mentioned even just last year, we were proud about driving our crime rate down. But I said, mission not accomplished. This summer, it's down nine percent from just last year. So that is the trajectory we're on, continuing to reduce it - when in fact, four years ago, the numbers were just going up month by month, and so we're making a real difference. And August alone, major crime was down 23 percent and assaults down 40 percent.

And again, we're comparing a lot of this to the pre-pandemic world, right? Pandemic, take that out of the equation. It was surreal. Very different circumstances, but at a time when people were not talking about subway crime as being a huge fear factor, was probably the last time was 2019. So when we talk about our numbers today and say compared to 2019, we're dramatically better - down 16 percent compared to the summer of '19. That says a lot. That says a lot about how far we've come - the safest month, last month in August. So like I said, "Mission accomplished - not coming out of my lips." Because I want to stand here next summer and tell you that we even beat this year's records, which I'm driving toward as well.

But I know this. Today or tomorrow, there'll still be another headline that sends chills down people's spines and creates that sense of as much as statistically there's a very low percentage chance now of something happening. You still worry about your loved ones. Our senior citizens, little kids, and yourselves on this. I understand that innately.

So that's why we can't back down. In fact, we don't back down. We double down. And so I'm announcing today that we're going to continue the overnight patrols that we actually intended last January as a very temporary measure. We thought we'd see whether it stabilizes the situation - look at the metrics as a result. It was supposed to be temporary, I know New Yorkers tell me they feel safer when they see officers on board. So we're going to continue doing that for the months to come. And we're going to continue drawing on the $77 million we already allocated. I have $45 million for the National Guard's Empire Shield mission. So you're going to continue to see some National Guard here as well because I believe this is what's making a difference.

And so we have some other challenges. We're going to continue with the long-term upgrades, brighter stations. Stronger barriers. Fair gates. Okay, fair gates, everyone. I'm watching the fair evasion because I know you're already going to ask me about it.

Proud to say that in one year since we started making this a top project since last year, fare evasion is down from nearly 14 percent of rides on the subway last year to about nine percent. Now nine percent is still too high. But it's better than the 14 percent, which is actually down from the year before. So again, trending in the right direction, and we're going to continue making our system reliable. Customer satisfaction numbers are about 85 percent on the subway.

Headed way up. Okay. Let's get them there. Okay. We're getting there. We're making real improvements there as well. And as you know, when it comes to continuing our investments in infrastructure.

And thank you, congestion pricing. It's working. We celebrated milestones such as both the Second Avenue Subway and the Interborough Express. We made major announcements just one month ago because we were able to secure the full funding for the MTAs $68 billion Capital Plan. And one last thing I want to get out there is the riders saw the best subway on-time performance in a decade. Okay, that's a headline, right? I know you don't write the headlines, but maybe tell someone back at the home office - that's a headline. So we're going to keep doing this.

We're also going to keep monitoring our laws. We talk about repeat offenders on the subways all the time. People who seem to be cycling in and out of the courtroom and no consequences. I've had to change bail laws. I've had to change discovery laws, so repeat offenders and those who do harm to others - know their days are numbered. So I'm going to keep doing whatever it takes. This continues to be a challenge. It's one, we're up for - one that we've made real progress with, but I'm going to continue giving reports because we expect to be held accountable.

I have high standards of what New Yorkers who are our commuters, and also our visitors are entitled to when they pay for that fare and get out in one of our subway trains. And I could not be happier with this report today. So I want to bring someone who shares this passion and this vision and has been such a strong partner of mine in government.

Our CEO and Chair, Janno Lieber. Thank you.

Contact the Governor's Press Office