The city marked its first fatal subway homicide of the year this week as new NYPD statistics show crime is on the rise, leaving terrified criminals clamoring for more police officers underground.
Serious crimes, such as murder and rape, on subways and buses increased by 17%, reaching 246 so far this year from 210 in the same period in 2025.
Robberies rose 58%, to 60 from 38, and assaults rose 9%, to 71 from 65, according to NYPD data through Feb. 8.
“You have a lot of people walking in here with mental health issues and controlled substances,” said Michael Ford, a 74-year-old Manhattan retiree at the Times Square station. “It’s not good because I travel a lot on trains.”
The nurse blamed the increase in drug crime and homelessness, and asked Mayor Mamdani to strengthen the underground police.
A spokesperson for the NYPD indicated that the 17% increase so far this year is just 36 incidents or about six cases per day. The NYPD also blamed the freezing cold in early February.
“When it’s cold, especially this cold, a lot of people get on the transit system,” said an NYPD spokesperson.
Mamdani said that he was still waiting for the release of the underground route when it was cold in the city. At the same time, the NYPD is adding about 100 officers a day to deal with smaller outbreaks, a spokeswoman for the department said.
“Also, six weeks is a statistically short period of time to suspect any kind of widespread practice,” the spokesman said.
Last year, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, along with Mayor Adams, implemented a strategy to flood trains and platforms with police, including two officers on trains every night.
And by mid-2025, subway crime was at an all-time low compared to previous non-epidemic years. By the end of 2025, the city’s transit system was on track for its safest year in a generation, with serious crimes per million falling by nearly 30% from 2021.
The city’s first undercover homicide occurred Tuesday when a 41-year-old man was shot dead in a Bronx subway station after an altercation with a gunman, police said.
Adrian Dawodu was shot once in the thigh and in the lower back just before 3:00 p.m. in the south station at 170th Street B and D, police said.
The victim, who was a regular at the station, was known for “yelling and screaming,” said NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny.
A shocking video posted on social media captured the shooter firing his gun and hitting the victim, who fell to the ground next to a trash can.
The police identified Alberto Frias, 27, as the suspect after receiving a video showing him fleeing the subway to his nearby home.
Detectives found a bullet on the floor of his bedroom and believe it fell on his bloody clothes while he was changing, Kenny said. They want him.
Blake Hammond, a 21-year-old student and cancer researcher at Columbia University, said his sister travels by train regularly and is scared.
“It scares my sister,” she said. “You want more police on the subway.”
Elizabeth McDermott, a 55-year-old grandmother of two, blamed “mentally ill people on the subway system.”
“Bellevue has to come and get their patients,” he said.
Kelly Smith, a 66-year-old stylist from New Jersey, called her daily commute on the subway “terrifying.”
“I’m definitely more cautious than ever,” he said while at the Times Square subway station. “New York politics doesn’t help.”
