Security and the New York City Subway: the system is adding guards

Apparently there has been a rise in crime on the NYC Subway, and it's believed that this reduces the confidence and willingness to use transit there, so MTA is adding to the number of police, but in this period of complaints about "overpolicing," this is controversial.  From the Wall Street Journal article "New York City Subway Hires Security to Improve Safety":

The operator of New York City’s subway says it plans to spend $2.2 million a month on private security guards to address crime and quality-of-life issues in the sprawling system. 

Officials at the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which oversees the subway, have been increasing the number of guards while calling on the city to provide additional police officers following assaults on staff, instances of riders being shoved from station platforms, the killing of two homeless people and a customer survey indicating rising concern about safety...

Ms. Feinberg said the guards provide a sense of security for riders and transit workers at the agency’s 472 stations, where weekday ridership remains more than 60% below normal. Safety is essential to retain riders returning to the subway for the first time in a year, she and other MTA officials say...

Ms. Feinberg said the guards have been most needed at stations with persistent drug, vandalism and burglary issues, or where workers have been harassed or debris has been thrown onto tracks. The stations include Harlem–125th Street station, West Fourth Street–Washington Square and 181st Street on the Eighth Avenue Line, all in Manhattan.

Image from the Merseyrail twitter feed.

One thing I will say is that I was really struck by the number of highly visible on site personnel on transit systems in Liverpool and London.  

I mean a dozen staff and officers or more in stations in the core, major transfer stations, etc.  Most outfitted in bright yellow vests.

It turns out that some of these efforts involve the British Transport Police, they aren't strictly local initiatives.  For example, Project Servator is a BTP initiative.

I've never really seen anything like that in the US, except at a major transfer station on the LA Metro, the 7th Street/Metro Center station.

But order maintenance is a tough issue, and part of the response to BLM has been a kind of nullification of the recognition that public safety is not merely a matter of overpolicing and police officer excess.