The New York Police Department failed its one mission – to serve and protect – when a masked gunman opened fire on the 36th Street Brooklyn subway station on April 12, leaving about 23 people injured with five in critical condition.
Following the subway shooting, New York City mayor Eric Adams said his call to action is to ensure more police officers are patrolling the subway.
“I would say to New Yorkers, we’re going to hold the day tour of the transit police officers to double the number of officers that are traditionally patrolling the system,” Adams said in a live interview with CNN on April 12. “We’re going to make sure that we actively and aggressively identify the person and go after the person who was responsible.
According to the NYPD official website, the Patrol Services Bureau is the largest bureau in the NYPD, and its mission is to ensure the safety of citizens and workers on public transportation by employing officers to patrol daily.
Rather than deploying more police officers on the subway station, he should have explained where the thousands of police officers employed to secure New York public transport were during the shooting.
“The proposed NYPD expense budget for Fiscal 2022 is $5.44 billion, representing 5.5 percent of the City’s total,” according to the May 2021 “Report to the Committees on Finance and Public Safety on the Fiscal 2022 Executive Budget for the New York Police Department.”
Of the many police officers that were in the station, none were able to prevent the incident, stop the shooter, or get a proper description while it happened.
According to “NYPD and Partners Announce Plan for Crime Stoppers Rewards” on nyc.gov, Frank R. James was named the suspect of the incident, with several New York residents contributing to the efforts.
A shop owner and security camera technician, Zach Tahhan, was one that helped identify the suspect.
Citizens helped with the efforts before the NYPD could get to it.
With the mayor proposing a $98 billion budget for the NYPD and talk of making that amount higher, it is a waste of money.
The NYPD needs to spend that money on actual security efforts like working security cameras rather than spending their time and effort in catching petty crime – like they do often – but were not able to catch a crime so large and violent.
Unsigned editorials represent the opinion of the Campus Times Editorial Board.
