MTA hiring 500 cops in split with Finest
The MTA board on Wednesday approved a controversial plan to hire 500 new cops to police the city’s subway and buses.
Transit honchos aren’t sure where the new officers will be trained. They wouldn’t say exactly where they’ll be deployed or why the Metropolitan Transportation Authority needs to expand its own police force when the NYPD’s Transit Bureau already patrols the subway.
The new hires were included in the agency’s $17 billion budget for 2020, which was approved by a vote of 9 to 3. The cops will cost $249 million over the next four years — a figure that does not include additional police supervisors.
MTA Chairman Patrick
Foye and other agency board members have in recent months laid out a medley of reasons why the additional officers are needed, including fare evasion, transit worker assaults, homelessness, sexual predators and even terrorism.
“Part of providing transit and transportation services is providing a safe and secure environment for our customers, and that is what we’re focused on,” Foye said Wednesday.
The chairman declined to explain why the NYPD requires help from MTA-employed cops, who have for decades focused on the Long Island and Metro-North railroads. “The [NYPD] Transit Bureau does a fine job,” he said.
The introduction of MTA cops into the subway has already caused problems with the NYPD.
Police sources told the Daily News last month that there is “no room to accommodate the MTA trainees” at the NYPD’s Police Academy in Queens, where the MTA’s cops have been trained for decades.
Several advocacy groups and politicians have raised concerns about the move to hire new cops in recent months.
Rep. Alexandria OcasioCortez (D-Bronx, Queens) and other local elected officials sent a letter to Gov. Cuomo Tuesday arguing that the money to be spend on cops is better spent on improving transit service.
“These new hires will be the governor’s cops,” said Riders Alliance spokesman Danny Pearlstein. “Now, the governor must deliver more and better transit service.”