Fewer police officers will be patrolling the Hub indefinitely as 15 of the 20 officers currently deployed there are being reassigned to transit police, according to Deputy Inspector Scott Callahan who made that announcement at the 40th Precinct’s Community Council meeting on February 6. The move comes as Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams push for an increased police presence in the subway system in an effort to reduce subway crime.
The open drug use and crime in the bustling commercial center at 149th Street and Third Ave has been the subject of concern for residents, business owners, and elected officials for more than a year.
“Public safety is no longer just a concern— it is a crisis. Our streets, our parks, our businesses, our homes are being overtaken by crime, open drug use, vagrancy, and a lack of accountability from city officials,” board members of the Community Council wrote in an open letter to elected officials and distributed to residents during the February 6 meeting.
“We have been patient. We have been vocal. But we have not been heard,” the letter stated.
Callahan also announced that the NYPD will not be patrolling the 2,200 bed migrant shelter set to open in late February, further angering residents who were told at a heated Community Board 1’s Supportive and Public Housing committee meeting on January 28, that there would be a dedicated police post.
The push for an increased police presence in the subway system comes after multiple high-profile crimes, including the death of a woman who was set on fire while sleeping on the F-train last December. In response to commuter anxiety over crime, Gov. Hochul announced a $77 million plan that would deploy 750 officers to stations and platforms and 300 officers on overnight trains in order to combat crime in subway stations.
Reassignments to transit police are spreading officers thin in Manhattan as well, and preventing them from addressing more pressing complaints, according to Gothamist. An NYPD spokesperson declined to comment on how long the reassignments will last, and whether or not the $77 million initiative would fund additional officers for transit.
Residents expressed concern over the lack of officers in The Hub, but Callahan stated that the decision “is above him.”
Rep. Ritchie Torres held a press conference on January 13 at the Third Avenue Business Improvement District central office in The Hub to call for an expansion of police powers that would mandate psychiatric care for those with severe mental illnesses who refuse care. That expanded on his previous letter to Mayor Adams last year, calling on an interagency response to “dismantl[e] the open-air drug market” in The Hub. He called on the State to grant the Mayor authority to place people with “severe mental illness and chemical addition into involuntary care.” According to Torres, the Hub’s deterioration is in part due to the State’s bail and discovery laws which allow for the release of repeat offenders, and also requires amending.
“The public safety and public health of the Bronx is an afterthought,” Torres said in the September 11 letter, accusing Adams of abandoning the Bronx.
According to Callahan, arrests in The Hub have increased by 112% in the past month including a 180% jump in narcotics arrests. Transit crime in the 40th precinct’s jurisdiction has increased by less than 6% from 2023 to 2024, according to the NYPD.
Juan Gabriel De Jesus, President of the 40th Precinct’s Community Council, urged dissatisfied residents to channel their frustration towards their elected officials, so that they can advocate for increased police presence in both The Hub and near the site of the proposed shelter.
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