A thousand members of the National Guard of the state of New York will be deployed in the subway of the US metropolis to counter crime after a series of incidents, Democratic Governor, Kathy Hokul, announced.

This announcement came after a shooting incident in mid-February at a Bronx train station, where one person was killed and five others were injured.

In late February, a subway driver was attacked with a knife at a Brooklyn station. The number of serious crimes on the transport network rose by 50% in January compared to the same month in 2023.

The deployment of National Guard soldiers aims at assisting the New York City Police Department to step up checks on passengers’ bags at the busiest stations.

New York City’s mayor, Democrat Eric Adams, the former police chief who was elected in 2021 on a promise to restore safety to the city after the Covid pandemic, also announced the increase of these controls.

Kathy Hokul promised to install more CCTV cameras and announced a plan to make it easier for people convicted of assaulting an employee of the transport system to be banned from the subway.

Prior to the incidents in recent years, the most serious incident occurred in April 2022, when a man opened fire on a rush hour train in Brooklyn, injuring dozens.

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