Our focus today revolves around the contrasting impressions and actualities of criminal activity in the subway system. We’re also turning our attention to the legacy of an attorney from the colonial epoch who undertook the significant task of compiling the state’s legal codes during the inauguration of state governance. As the previous year concluded and 2025 inaugurated, a concerning succession of events unfolded within the subway tunnels: a female victim succumbing to fire in a deserted subway carriage at a terminal station in Brooklyn, a deadly stabbing incident aboard a train in Queens, along with no less than three other assaults, all contributing to a growing sense of insecurity in the subways.
Mayor Eric Adams and the city’s Police Commissioner, Jessica Tisch, referred to this influence of ‘perception’ no less than seven times in a recent press conference discussing the city’s crime data. Commissioner Tisch observed, ‘The subway system is invariably a barometer of the public’s sense of security in the city’. Despite reassuring statistics indicating a reduction in crime rates, she stressed that additional measures remain necessary, given the prevalent feeling of insecurity in our subway network.
Later, Mayor Adams commented on the matter, providing this insight: ‘It’s evident that our perceptions have a stronger impact than what reality presents’. The crime data that were made public by Mayor Adams and Commissioner Tisch resonated with a study conducted by The New York Times. Their analysis employed data from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (M.T.A.) and the police department from the past year, revealing that the probability of becoming a victim of a violent crime while in the subway is rather low; in fact, it parallels the likelihood of sustaining an injury from a car accident during a two-mile journey.