Adams: More NYPD cops on subway trains, more of them off their phones

New York City’s subways will see a shift of NYPD cops onto trains from station platforms, Mayor Eric Adams announced Tuesday, and he invited the public to submit photos of cops fiddling with cellphones instead of being on the lookout for crime.

Adams — himself a former transit cop who retired as a captain — said the shift would occur within weeks. 

“If you don’t inspect what you expect, it’s all suspect. And so we are going to start taking very aggressive actions to make sure police are patrolling our subway system — and not patrolling their iPhone,” Adams said at a City Hall news conference on the municipal budget.

“And so you are going to see a visible difference in policing in the next couple of weeks to get those officers who are not doing their job to join those officers who are doing their job,” he said. 

NYPD cops are issued department cell phones. It was unclear how the public would discern whether an officer is using his phone for a job-related purpose.

In a news release, Patrick Lynch, the head of the Police Benevolent Association, the rank-and-file labor union, said: “New York City police officers did not ask for NYPD-issued smartphones — we were ordered to carry and use them. We are now required to document every minute of our tour on these phones. Every form we are required to fill out and every alert we receive comes through the phone. If there’s a problem with cops using the phone on duty, NYPD management should change the policies and go back to pen and paper.”

Adams on Tuesday proposed an increase for the NYPD budget to $5.8 billion, which doesn’t include certain costs like pensions and fringe benefits. The NYPD’s budget was $5.6 billion when Adams took office on Jan. 1.

Earlier this year, Adams had proposed leaving the NYPD budget flat, even as he wanted cuts for many other agencies. The overall municipal budget, which must be approved by the City Council and finalized by the end of June, is proposed at $99.7 billion. 

The NYPD money would be used to pay cops more per union contracts, overtime, IT systems to disseminate intelligence, a new anti-gun unit, dashboard cameras and automatic license plate readers. The budget doesn’t call for an increase in the number of sworn police personnel, which is around 35,000.

As in cities across the United States, New York is grappling with an increase in crime aboard its mass transit system, even with fewer passengers due to pandemic-era work-from-home arrangements. Crime has been cited as a reason returning to in-person office work is going slower than desired for the city’s economic recovery. 

A recent Quinnipiac University poll, for instance, found that only 48% of city voters felt safe using the subway during the day, compared to 76% in 2015. And during the evening, only 27% said they felt safe, compared to 51% in 2015.

Social media is rife with photos snapped by the public of cops breaking the rules, including failing to mask as required on public transit and parking illegally.There are even Twitter accounts dedicated to chronicling allegations of the rule-breaking.

Adams’ spokesman Jonah Allon said the public can tweet at the mayor with photos of police on the subways via @NYCMayor. He said the office is also in the process of setting up a designated email account.

Adams promised to go to personally check out alleged dereliction of duty: “New Yorkers, you see that? Send me a photo, and I will be at that station.”

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.