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In a joint appearance earlier this week, Mayor Eric Adams and New York City Police Department (NYPD) Commissioner Edward A. Caban announced that officials will install several gun detectors/scanners throughout the city’s subway system.
For the next 90 days, per the Public Oversight of Surveillance Technology Act, the NYPD will explore “emerging technologies” for weapon detection in the transit system. Once the 90 days are up, a pilot program will start across several subway stations and the NYPD will monitor its effectiveness. Details regarding how many and which hubs will be part of the program have yet to be released.
During the joint press conference, the mayor also announced that the city will hire clinicians to help “connect people with untreated severe mental illness in the subways to mental health treatment and care.”
Given recent unprovoked and, in some cases, fatal attacks underground, Governor Kathy Hochul has already sent 1,000 National Guard members and police officers to conduct bag checks. These new efforts aim to complement that measure.
“Riders have to feel safe when riding the subways and that requires innovation—new weapons detection technology, but also increased deployments of police, tougher handling of repeat offenders by the criminal justice system, and expanded resources for mental health,” said MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber in an official statement.
Here's to hoping that things will soon change for the better.