Transit crime is back as a top concern in some US cities, and political leaders have taken notice

NEW YORK (AP) — Fear of crime on subways and buses is back as a top concern in some U.S. cities, and so are efforts aimed at persuading the public that officials are taking the issue seriously.

New York’s governor said Wednesday that she would deploy 750 members of the National Guard to help patrol the nation’s busiest subway system, saying she felt New York City police needed reinforcements after attacks including a shooting on a train platform and a conductor getting slashed in the neck.

In Pennsylvania, legislators created a special prosecutor to go after crimes committed in the transit system that serves the southeast of the state. Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker on Thursday promised to beef up police patrols and use “every legal and constitutional tool” after a spate of transit-related shootings left three dead and 12 injured, many of them schoolkids.

“Enough is enough,” she said on WURD radio.

It remains to be ween whether such moves will have any affect on reducing crime in these massive public transit systems.

At least in New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul acknowledged that calling in the National Guard was as much about soothing fears and making a political statement as it was about making mass transit safer. The city’s subways, the Democrat said, were quite safe already. And felony crime hasn’t risen significantly. But a show of force might help dispel anxieties more than any statistic, she reasoned.

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