Hundreds of NYPD officers will start patrolling overnight trains next week, Gov. Kathy Hochul said Thursday — finally detailing her much-anticipated subway safety surge.
“Monday, you’ll start to see the overnight presence on the trains,” she said, wearing a windbreaker in a Grand Central Station news conference.
“It might not be complete, but it is going to start Monday.”
Two officers will patrol each of the roughly 150 overnight trains when the effort reaches its full strength, Hochul said.
Hochul first announced the plan to put cops on every overnight train during her State of the State address Tuesday, but offered few substantive details, including about timing, manpower and cost, leaving straphangers and cops alike puzzled.
Her news conference in Grand Central outlined many specifics, though she couldn’t say exactly when the full 300 officers will be on every train from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. as promised.
Another 750 officers will be posted in platforms and stations during the day and night, Hochul said.
Both the train and platform patrols in an expected six-month surge will carry a $154 million price tag, which will be paid by the state, officials said.
The current fiscal year budget will fund $77 million through March 30, and Hochul is expected to request lawmakers sign off on the other half for the remaining three months, officials said.
“This is a six-month strategy,” she said. “Crime does tend to go down after the winter months. There’s more people indoors during the winter months for obvious reasons.
“We’ll get it into the budget to fund the second half of this, with the support of the Legislature.”
Hochul said the money will fund largely overtime for cops assigned to the train patrols – a promise that could clear up concerns by rank-and-file NYPD about how the plan would work given a recent OT cap.
The surge will not affect the duties of 2,500 cops already assigned to transit, the governor said.
“This is to add on top of that, this is not diverting existing law enforcement,” she said. “I want to assure everybody of that.”
Hochul also repeated her pledge to find funding to install LED lighting in every subway station, as well as put up platform edge barriers to prevent shoves onto the tracks.
She said the plan will add 10 more outreach teams by the year’s end to help homeless or mentally ill people in the subway system find housing and care.
The surge comes after a spate of horrific recent random attacks – including a sleeping woman who was burned to death – and a rise in felony assaults and murders inside the subway system.
Many cops who spoke with The Post questioned how the surge would work, given the NYPD’s dwindling manpower.
Councilman Robert Holden (D-Queens) likewise adopted a wait-and-see attitude – and slammed Hochul’s record.
“Putting more cops in the subway is a step in the right direction, but with the NYPD short-staffed and OT restricted, we’ll have to see the plan in detail,” he said.
“The governor is known for talking tough, but failing to follow through when it matters most. We’ll see what happens.”
